Govt, stakeholders review progress of Jewar airport project

The Civil Aviation Ministry today held a meeting with stakeholders to review the progress in setting up an international airport at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh and discussed various other issues, including financial viability.

An official release said the Uttar Pradesh government expects to lay the foundation stone for the first phase of the project by October 2018.

The airport, to be developed on Public Private Partnership model (PPP), would help in easing the pressure on the national capital's airport, which has been seeing rising passenger numbers.

"A detailed discussion was held on the financial viability of the airport and various models of awarding the PPP concession were deliberated upon. The state government and YEIDA assured that funds for land acquisition are available and the process is expected to proceed smoothly," the release issued by the ministry said.

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, his junior Jayant Sinha, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma and senior officials attended the meeting.

According to the release, timelines have been fixed for various activities and responsibilities have been assigned.

The ministry gave the site clearance in July 2017 and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) would be the implementing agency for the project.

In January, YEIDA obtained a no-objection certificate