The Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) sent a proposal to the state government to acquire 2,050 hectares from 13 villages for the third and fourth phases of the international greenfield airport in Jewar, officials said.
The move comes a day after the government increased the area of land required to rehabilitate farmers displaced by the second phase of the greenfield airport. It also hiked the land acquisition rate under the second phase to Rs 3,100 from Rs 2,300 per sq mt, which was the rate given to farmers under the first phase. The revised rate will now be uniform for all upcoming phases, officials said. To be sure, the Uttar Pradesh government earlier this month approved the land acquisition for the phases 3 and 4 at a cost of Rs 6,300 crore.
The Uttar Pradesh government has already given their approval for the land acquisition for phases 3 and 4. Therefore, we have sent the proposal to acquire 2,050 hectares of land in a total of 13 villages located in Jewar area.
In its proposal, NIAL said it will acquire 1,350 hectares for phase 3 and 700 hectares phase 4 in one go. The villages from where the land will be acquired include Banwaribas, Thora, Neemka and Sabota, among others. “We will acquire the land under the provisions of the 2013 Land Act,” said Suhas LY, District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.
The administration is currently in the process of acquiring a total of 1,363.45 hectares for phase 2.It has already acquired 1,334 hectares under phase one of the project and handed it over to Swiss company Zurich International AG, which is the concessionaire developing the airport. The firm has completed over 20% of the development work on the airport, said its officials.
Under phase 1, the airport will initially cater to 12 million passengers annually, which will be increased to 70 million by phase 4. It will start operations with one runway and nearly 100,000 flight movements a year, said officials. The runway will be 3,900 metres long and have a standing capacity to accommodate 28 aircraft.
