US$3.1bn second New Delhi airport gets green light

The Indian government has announced that within the next four to five years a second international airport is to be built near the capital city, New Delhi, at an estimated cost of 200 billion rupees (US$3.10bn). To cope with the rapidly increasing volume of passenger traffic, the Noida International Airport will be built from scratch in phases that will enable it to cater with up to 50 million passengers per annum (MPPA).
It is anticipated that New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport will reach 91 MPPA within the next three years, and attain a peak MPPA of 109 in 2023, which underlines the need for the new airport near India’s capital.
According to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, “We have granted in-principle approval for a greenfield airport at Jewar (Greater Noida) to cater to the growing flying requirements of NCR,” – NCR, or the National Capital Region, encompasses Delhi and several surrounding districts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan states.
The new airport in Greater Noida will be located 72 km (45 miles) from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Initially the airport, which will occupy a site of 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres), will have one runway, adding three more in subsequent phases.
The state government, together with Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority will carry the land procurement cost, while contracts for the public-private partnership project will be awarded after competitive bidding.
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, having boomed in the last decade as ticket prices were slashed and the number of people sufficiently wealthy to afford air travel swelled.
The majority of India’s 40 largest airports will exceed their design capacity within the next ten years based on projected growth rates – Mumbai and Chennai are already fast approaching saturation. India’s government intends to open 50 disused airports by 2020, having already given approval for 18 greenfield airports.