International bidder Zurich Airport works on first phase
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport (NIA) in Jewar, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, on 25 November, boosting connectivity and creating a future-ready aviation sector in India.
The airport’s Rs.10,500 crore first phase is spread over more than 1,300 hectares of land and designed to serve around 1.2 crore passengers a year.
Scheduled for completion by 2024, the first phase is to be executed by the international bidder Zurich Airport International AG as concessionaire.
The groundwork for the first phase such as land acquisition and rehabilitation of the affected families has been completed.
A special focus of this grand vision has been on Uttar Pradesh that is witnessing the development of multiple new international airports including the recently inaugurated Kushinagar airport and the under construction international airport at Ayodhya.
Complementing and decongesting traffic at IGI Airport, Jewar Airport will be a logistics gateway of northern India, conceptualised with an integrated multi modal cargo hub, with a focus on reducing the total cost and time for logistics. The dedicated cargo terminal will have a capacity of 20 lakh metric tonne, which will be expanded to 80 lakh metric tonne.
Through facilitating seamless movement of industrial products, the airport will play a crucial role in helping the region attract huge investments, boost rapid industrial growth, and enable reach of local products to national and international markets. This will bring new opportunities for numerous enterprises, and also create tremendous employment opportunities.
The airport will develop a Ground Transportation Centre that will feature a multimodal transit hub, housing metro and high-speed rail stations, taxi, bus services and private parking. This will enable seamless connectivity of the airport with road, rail and metro. Noida and Delhi will be connected to the airport through hassle free metro service.
All major roads and highways like the Yamuna Expressway, Western Peripheral Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and others will be connected to the airport. The airport will also be linked to the planned Delhi-Varanasi High Speed Rail, enabling the journey between Delhi and airport in only 21 minutes.
The airport will also house a state-of-art MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Overhauling) Service.
The design of the airport is focused on low operating costs and seamless and fast transfer processes for passengers.
It will have a swing aircraft stand concept, providing flexibility for airlines to operate an aircraft for both domestic and international flights from the same contact stand, without having to re-position the aircraft.
This will ensure quick and efficient aircraft turnarounds at the airport, while ensuring a smooth and seamless passenger transfer process.
It will be India’s first net zero emissions airport. It has earmarked dedicated land to be developed as forest park using trees from the project site.
If the construction progresses as per the schedule and Phase 1 completes by the second half of 2024, there will be significant ‘real’ benefits, according to Santhosh Kumar, Vice Chairman – ANAROCK Group.
Already, over the last year, commercial activity, particularly warehousing, has seen increased momentum in and around the airport, factoring in other mega projects in the vicinity, including the Film City.
Kumar notes an uptick in office leasing in Noida. Various private institutions are now scouting for land in and around the airport. The Greater Noida Authority has boosted investments into the region by attracting big companies with various incentives.
While the future for real estate around Jewar Airport certainly looks bright, investors, end-users and developers must continue to tread with caution. The arrival of a second international airport in NCR will have a positive impact on the real estate market in and around the region and the state of UP.
However, investment gains expectations must be more realistic than speculative, said Kumar.
Over the short-to-mid-term, the area in and around the airport will undoubtedly witness significant development activity by players who hold suitable land banks there. Many players have been hoping to cash in on this mega project since it was announced several years ago and bought up large land parcels in the vicinity.
For these far-sighted developers, the time to come forward and weigh the best options is finally at hand. However, they will need to consider that the nearby areas, including Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway already have a lot of residential projects available.
As per ANAROCK data, the total available housing stock in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway collectively stands at nearly 54,450 units (as on Q3 2021). This is 33% of the total stock in the entire NCR. Interestingly, back in 2019, the total available stock in the three areas was approx. 67,830 units. With demand rising in these cities after the pandemic, housing inventory declined by nearly 20% in this period.
The new airport will induce a massive infrastructure boost and make these areas more liveable and active. This will attract increasing interest from end-users in this region, according to Kumar.
The new airport will significantly boost tourism in Mathura and Agra. These cities are already well-connected with the national capital via the Yamuna Expressway, and the airport will massively increase tourist footfalls. This, in turn, will help these cities’ overall real estate markets in the times to come. The airport will also act as a catalyst for Western UP’s real estate market, said Kumar.
“With the Jewar Airport finally set to take off, we can reasonably expect significant activity to commence over the next 2-4 years.” #tenders #projects #investment /fiinews.com
