PM to conduct Noida Airport's 'bhoomi pujan' on Nov 25: Jewar MLA

Prime Minister will perform the groundbreaking ceremony on November 25, the MLA said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the Noida International Airport near Delhi on November 25, the local MLA said on Monday.

BJP leader and Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also attend the 'bhoomi pujan' at the greenfield project site at Jewar in district Gautam Buddh Nagar.

The Noida International Airport is being developed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode and is touted to be the biggest airport in India upon completion. It will be developed in four phases, with the entire project estimated to cost around Rs 30,000 crore, according to officials.

The airport is being developed by Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Zurich International Airport AG, the Swiss concessionaire of the project.

"Speculation was rife for several months about the bhoomi pujan for the Noida International Airport. Prime Minister Modi's visit to Jewar was expected since a long time but finally it has been decided for November 25 when the bhoomi pujan will happen," the Jewar MLA said in a statement.

On Monday, District Magistrate Suhas L Yathiraj, Police Commissioner Alok Singh, Joint Commissioner Love Kumar, YIAPL CEO Christoph Schnellmann, Yamuna Expressway Authority CEO Arun Vir Singh, airport project incharge Shailendra Bhatia, among others, held a meeting to discuss arrangements for the programme.

Two locations have been shortlisted for the ceremony, which are close to Ranhera and Rohi villages in Jewar, the MLA said, adding that the final decision on the venue would be taken in a day or two.

He said the airport project was among the priorities of the Adityanath government since it came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and credited the chief minister with expediting work on it.

Earlier, Jewar and nearby region was counted among less developed areas but is now growing leaps and bounds, with the airport and a film city in the offing, he added.

Singh also expressed gratitude to the villagers who agreed for acquisition of their land by the government for the mega greenfield project.