Lucknow:
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Tuesday extended the date for signing the concession agreement for the upcoming international airport in Jewar. It also approved extension of date for bid validity and bid security for the greenfield airport till March 31, 2021, according to an official statement.
The decision was taken during a meeting of the cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow, it stated. Restriction of flight services due to COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown had prompted the extension of the date for signing of the concessionaire agreement between the selected developer Zurich Airport International AG and the state government for the Rs 29,560-crore project, according to officials.
“The cabinet of ministers has approved extending the signing date of the concession agreement for the Noida International Greenfield Airport in Jewar by 45 days from the commencement of international flights between Malaysia and India and Switzerland and India which included the duration of the mandatory quarantine in India or till October 15, whichever is earlier,” according to the statement. “It also approved the proposal to extend the time extension and the period of bid validity and bid security from October 24, 2020 to March 31, 2021,” it stated. As per a decision taken by the Cabinet on June 5, 2018, the airport in Gautam Buddh Nagar district’s Jewar will be developed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The state government will provide the land on which the airport is to be constructed by the developer selected after a global bidding process, according to the statement.
On November 29 last year, Swiss firm Zurich Airport emerged as the highest bidder to develop the Jewar airport, outbidding competitors like Adani Enterprises, DIAL and Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holding. The project will be spread over 5,000 hectares. When completed, the airport, which will be the third in the national capital region after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and Ghaziabad’s Hindon Airport, is likely to have six to eight runways, the most in India, according to officials.
Work is underway for the first phase of the airport, expected to be completed by 2023..
