Zurich Airport International AG, the Swiss company selected for developing the greenfield international airport at Jewar, and the special purpose vehicle (SPV) Yamuna International Airport Private Limited on Wednesday signed a concession agreement, paving the way for the work to start at site of the about Rs 30,000 crore project.
The agreement was signed by Christoph Schnellmann, chief executive officer of the Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), and Arun Vir Singh, CEO of Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL), in the presence of SP Goyal, additional chief secretary at UP’s civil aviation department. Greater Noida authority CEO Narendra Bhooshan, Noida authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari, and UP civil aviation department director Surendra Singh were also present at the event that took place at the NIAL’s office in Greater Noida’s Sector Omega 1. Other top officials of Zurich International joined the event online.
“The Noida International Greenfield Airport at Jewar will become operational as per schedule by 2023 as we have already been working on all required procedures, such as geographical survey, topographical survey and soil testing, among other things. We will start work at the project site by middle of 2021 after finalising the required agencies. Once the engineering and designing work gets completed, we will issue tender on our website, and then qualifying agencies in the bidding process will start construction and development work,” said Christoph Schnellmann, chief executive officer of the Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), the SPV formed to develop and operate the ambitious project.
Under the development agreement, the Noida airport will initially have one runway and around 90 per cent of the air traffic in the initial years will be domestic only, said a top official of Zurich Airport International.
On May 19 this year, Zurich International obtained the requisite security clearance from the Union ministry of home affairs, paving way for singing of concession agreement. The agreement was supposed to be signed by July 2 as per the earlier schedule. But on June 10, the Uttar Pradesh government postponed the agreement signing date to August 17 in view of the travel disruptions due to pandemic. On August 14, Zurich International was given time till October 15 for agreement signing in view of restrictions on air travel.
Once the agreement is signed, Zurich Airport International AG will commence work at the site in the next six months after mobilize the workforce and also rope in required agencies
The Gautam Budh Nagar administration has acquired 1,334 hectares of land under phase 1 out of the total 5,000 hectares required for the airport project.
In November last year, Zurich Airport International AG, the owner of Switzerland’s biggest airport, had emerged as the top bidder to design, build and develop a new airport in Jewar along the 165-kilometre Yamuna expressway. t had outbid the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), Adani Enterprises and Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Limited to win the 40-year concession for the Noida airport. The GMR group-led DIAL operates the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi.
To be spread over 5,000 hectares, once completed, it will be the biggest airport in India with eight runways and will cater to 70 million passengers a year by 2040-50. The first phase will be completed in 2023.