UP banks on Jewar for jobs as wait on for pact with Zurich

Noida: The Jewar airport project is at the centre of the UP government’s plans to generate job opportunities for those who are returning to the state from other parts of the country, a senior BJP functionary has said.

Apart from the international airport, the state government has identified three other key infrastructure projects to generate employment — the Ayodhya temple, redevelopment of Varanasi and Bundelkhand Expressway, state BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan said.

Of these, he added, the Jewar project is expected to create the most number of jobs for various skilled labourers — right from its construction till the time it starts operation.

Moreover, the airport project is likely to give rise to a number of ancillary units and businesses off the Yamuna Expressway.

“Jewar, Bundelkhand, Ayodhya and Varanasi are the four focus areas of our government now. All these big projects will create employment opportunities for lakhs of people across the state. Noida is a priority area as it is the financial capital of the state and the Jewar airport will further help increase economic activities there. Jobs will be created not just for construction of the airport, but also in other allied industries,” said Mohan.

“Once the airport work starts, transportation and logistics, such as taxi services, vending and industry clusters will also get a boost,” Mohan added.

With thousands of workers who had migrated to other states in search of a livelihood now returning to the state, the UP government is faced with a major challenge of creating job opportunities for them. Moreover, it also needs to stem the exodus of migrants so that industries can resume operations and economy gets a much needed boost.

Extension for agreement?

Officials at the Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL), the company formed to oversee construction of the Jewar airport, said work had resumed in the past two weeks after a two-month hiatus. On May 18, the Union home ministry had granted security clearance to Zurich AG, the Swiss company that will build the airport.

However, the project monitoring committee has decided to seek an extension of the 45-day time period given for an agreement to be signed between the concessionaire and Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL).

“The agreement has to be signed within 45 days of the security clearance. Though we have time till July 2, we have appealed to the cabinet to give us 45 days from the day international flights start operating,” said Shailendra Bhatia, who is the nodal officer for NIAL handling the airport project.

Once the agreement is signed, Zurich AG will get three years to complete the construction of the airport. The first flight is expected to take off from Jewar in the second half of 2023.

The district administration has started work on the final lap of land acquisition in Jewar-Bangar along with rehabilitation and resettlement of farmers’ dues. “In the past two days, we have done a series of meetings on land acquisition. We are meeting NIAL officials on Sunday to draw a roadmap for rehabilitation and fix timelines. We have constituted three teams that will visit the areas to check on the current status,” said Suhas LY, the district magistrate.

Administrative officials said the acquisition process would start soon.