The proposed international airport at Jewar in Greater Noida will not only bring places in Uttar Pradesh such as Kanpur and Allahabad closer to NCR under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN, it will also benefit locations in neighbouring states, a techno-economic feasibility report for the airport has stated.
The Uttar Pradesh government is of the view that once the airport begins functioning from 2022-23, people travelling by air in the state will increase significantly.
Air traffic in Uttar Pradesh is currently growing at a rate of 28.8 per cent.
The PwC report stated that when the airport starts functioning, Shimla, Ludhinana, Pathankot, Gwalior and Adampur would be benefitted by it.
These places, including Bhatinda would be benefitted by both the Jewar airport and the IGI airport in New Delhi under the Centre's UDAN scheme. The capacity deployment to Kanpur and Adampur at present remains the highest.
It said 88 per cent of Jewar airport traffic would be domestic and the rest international, adding that adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh such as Agra and Gautam Budh Nagar would be the main contributors to the fliers volume to the airport.
The report said the demand for air travel from the Dellhi-NCR region will increase manifold in the coming years and it will be determined by factors such as "natural growth in air travel demand due to economic progress and model shift from railways to air".
The ambitious regional connectivity scheme, also known as Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagarik (UDAN), where fares are capped at Rs 2,500 for one-hour flights, seeks to connect unserved and under-served airports.
Under the scheme, Uttar Pradesh will get 11 new additional airports in the next 15 months, and with the Jewar airport becoming operational in 2022-23, the spurt in the air traffic would be phenomenal, the state's civil aviation minister Nand Gopal Gupta said.
"The state will see benefits in terms of better connectivity with the rest of the country. Allahabad gets special focus. As per the policy 13 new routes will connect the city with other region, he added.
PWC was hired by the government to prepare the detailed project report, besides examining its techno-economic feasibility.
With the final approval from the Centre coming through last week, the UP Civil Aviation Department is now working on the bid process for construction of the greenfield airport, amid indications that the bids could be called in August.
The airport is expected to handle 60 lakh passengers by 2022-23, when the first phase of the project is slated to be ready and one crore passengers annually by 2029-30.
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