Union Government approved a proposal for setting up second airport at Jewar in NCR

The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation on 25 June 2015 approved a proposal for setting up a second international airport at Jewar in the National Capital Region. The proposal would soon be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval

Once the project gets the required approvals, the civil aviation ministry will offer the contract for building and running the proposed Jewar airport in Greater Noida to the GMR Group where the government acquired 2378 acres of land for the project.

Under RoFR norms, GMR Group has the Right of First Refusal (RoFR) for any airport that is built within a 150-km radius of the existing airport in Delhi. According to the rules, GMR’s bid will be accepted only if it is equal to or less than 10 percent of the bid offered by the lowest bidder. It will be asked to match the lowest bid arrived at after the bidding process for the proposed Jewar airport.

According to norms in the Policy on Airport Infrastructure of India, the Union Government will need to amend certain regulations to enable development of the new project as the establishment of greenfield airports in places where an existing one is unable to meet the projected requirements of traffic or in case a new focal point of traffic emerges with sufficient viability.

The current policy states, No greenfield airport will normally be allowed within an aerial distance of 150 km of an existing airport. Where it is allowed as a second airport in the same city or close vicinity, the parameters for distribution of traffic between the two airports will be clearly spelt out.

The airport in Jewar was proposed by the erstwhile Mayawati-led Government in Uttar Pradesh and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) to decide on the issue.

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