A year after the Union Civil Aviation Ministry gave its in-principle approval for the Jewar international airport in Greater Noida, the mega project is finally inching closer to reality as farmers of the region are gradually agreeing to give their land for the project.
So far, 2,335 farmers have given their consent to give up 916 hectares of land for the proposed greenfield airport. This meets approximately 75 per cent of the land requirement for the first phase of the project.
An official of Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) said it was now certain that the airport would come up in Jewar itself.
The Union Civil Aviation Ministry, a few months after the formation of Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh in March 2017, gave its in-principle approval for the second airport in National Capital Region.
The proposal for this airport was first submitted way back in 2002 by the Mayawati government but it remained pending for 15 years. A decade of this waiting period was under the United Progressive Alliance rule, as the Centre and the state government indulged in political manoeuvres.
Things finally began moving only when the Member of Parliament from Gautam Buddha Nagar, Mahesh Sharma, became the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation in the Narendra Modi government in 2014. the project reached fruition when Yogi Adityanath took over the reins in UP.
The total land required for the first phase of the project is 1,334 hectare, of which 116 hectare is government land. For the remaining 1,220 hectare, the district administration, as well as local MLA Dhirendra Singh, have been trying hard to convince farmers about the importance of the project.
“We have finally accomplished the Herculean task of getting consent for the magical figure of 70 per cent land required for the project. Confirmation has come from 2,335 farmers for 912 hectare, which is almost 75 per cent of the total land required for the first phase. We are now sure that Uttar Pradesh will not be left behind in the development race,” said Dhirendra Singh, adding that not only would the airport lift the fortunes of the region, but it would also act as a catalyst in improving the fortunes of the villagers and farmers of the area.
Earlier, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry had fixed August 31 as the deadline for seeking consent of farmers for the land, and it was later revised to September 6. However, till Friday, the total consents enabled 67 per cent requirement of land, following which the district administration sought more time.
As per the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, the administration needs to have the consent of at least 70 per cent farmers before it can start acquisition.
The government has offered Rs 2,300 per square metre to landowners, a job at the proposed airport to one member of each family, a residential plot of 50 per cent size of the one the farmers currently own and double the value of their existing home to carry out construction of a new one.
The process of acquiring land from the villagers, which began in May this year, has been fraught with difficulties, so much so that even YEIDA officials had started losing hope, fearing that the project might be shifted from Uttar Pradesh to neighbouring Haryana.
The primary bone of contention among the farmers was that the state government had changed the nomenclature of their land from rural to urban, which entitled them to a compensation that was roughly half of what they would get if the land was classified as rural.
The total land required for the world class Jewar airport project is 3,000 hectare. The airport at Jewar is to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 15,754 crore in four phases. However, the timeline of the construction will depend on several factors such as concessionaire, availability of land, mandatory clearances, financial closures, connectivity, and utility services, among others.