“Noida’s new airport will start a new chapter of Viksit UP,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared as he inaugurated Noida International Airport situated in Jewar, between Greater Noida and Aligarh.
There are great expectations riding on it, with a massive transformation expected in the hitherto agrarian hinterland that this region was, with anything from multi-modal connectivity, cargo hubs and even an MRO (aircraft repair set-up) coming up.
However, the gains will not be that of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and its economy alone. When commercial flights start plying from Noida, expected only in two months’ time or so, it will also announce a transformation of a new model for India’s urban planning to follow, not to forget the fillip it will give to aviation.
“(This) marks a structural shift in India's aviation and urban planning strategy. This project is the centrepiece of a broader plan to transform the National Capital Region (NCR),” said Monjima Sen, research consultant with Knight Frank, in the report ‘The Jewar Turning Point’.
Fruits of Noida airport’s labour will be seen in anything from the national capital region’s (NCR) connectivity boost to real estate, opening up a corridor between south of Delhi (Gurgaon, South Delhi, through Faridabad into Noida airport area) to the East as a new route map for development. That means, newer link roads and rail heads being planned for the new airport will help connect the already prosperous South Delhi—Gurgaon belt to the fast-coming-up Greater Noida (and beyond) area more quickly, thereby catalysing growth in an easterly direction to the benefit of Western UP.
“A dual connectivity framework comprising road and rail is being implemented to integrate the airport with the wider NCR. This addresses the 40–50 km distance from core sectors in the immediate catchment, such as Noida Sectors 44 and 149,” says the Knight Frank report.
While most attention has been focused on the real estate boom that everyone expects to engulf western UP, this is already seen in the launch of new residential properties — while Greater Noida accounted for just 19 per cent of Delhi NCR’s residential launches just five years ago, today, it is accounting for nearly 30 per cent.
For the capital’s land sharks, the airport is indeed a welcome sign, considering how prime areas like South Delhi and Gurgaon are already saturated or have prices that have skyrocketed post-COVID to hit record levels. The Greater Noida belt, particularly, has a lot of unsold or unused inventory (properties bought as investments and lying idle) and the airport is expected to unlock them, as well as new developments which will now stretch eastwards in the Agra-Lucknow direction.
But the biggest gainer could just be aviation. Once the airport starts functioning later this summer, Delhi NCR will become the first urban congregation in the country to have three airports — besides Noida, it already has Indira Gandhi as the primary hub, with Hindon in Ghaziabad as a domestic relief airport.
That means it will join global cities like London (6 airports — Heathrow, Gatwick and others), New York (3 airports — JFK, La Guardia & Newark), Tokyo (Haneda and Narita), Paris (Charles de Gaulle & Orly), and Istanbul (Istanbul & Sabiha Gokcen), which are served by multiple airports.
“This decentralisation is essential for the world’s second-largest urban agglomeration, breaking the long-standing mono-centric dependency on a single aviation hub. Global benchmarks like Tokyo demonstrate that twin-airport systems effectively manage high-density traffic while stimulating regional growth,” said the report.
The report also points out how it is already playing out within India as well. Goa’s second airport in Mopa, opened three years ago, has already captured about 40 per cent of the traffic to the Sunshine State. Mumbai’s second airport, which just started operating at the end of this year from Navi Mumbai, could also show solid performance in the coming years.
Cities like Chennai and Bengaluru are already looking at building their second airports. Parandur, in Chennai’s adjoining Kanchipuram district, has already been identified, and land acquisition has started, with a target of nearly 6,000 acres and a project cost of ₹30,000 crore as of now.