Noida Airport: UP to become the only state in India with 5 international airports

Uttar Pradesh will soon get international airports in Noida and Ayodhya, making it the only state in the country to have five international airports, giving an impetus to foreign trade and travel.

PM Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport at Jewar, making UP the only state to have five international airports. PM Modi recently inaugurated the Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh, which is the third International Airport in the state other than operational airports in Lucknow and Varanasi. Apart from Lucknow, Varanasi and Kushinagar, UP will get the Ayodhya Airport in 2022, and Noida Airport in 2024, making it the only state in India with 5 international airports. 

The state, at present, has eight operational airports, while 13 airports and seven airstrips are being developed. While the Lucknow airport handles flights to international destinations like Middle Eastern countries, including Oman, Kuwait, UAE among others; Varanasi Airport handles flights to Thailand, Nepal among others. The inaugural flight at the Kushinagar International Airport operated from Colombo, Sri Lanka as the airport will give impetus to the religious tourism in the state, with Kushinagar being the Mahaparinirvan of Lord Buddha. 

As for the rest of the upcoming international airports, Uttar Pradesh will soon get airports in Noida and Ayodhya, giving an impetus to foreign trade and travel. The airport will have multi-modal connectivity as it is close to the existing Yamuna Expressway (Greater Noida to Agra), Eastern Peripheral Expressway and it will have link with Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at Ballabhgarh, Khurja-Jewar NH 91. Here are the upcoming International Airports in UP-

Noida International Airport

The Jewar Green Field International Airport in Noida, now being named as the Noida International Airport will be an alternate airport in Delhi-NCR and is expected to share traffic with the operational Delhi International Airport, which is also the busiest airport in the country. CM Yogi has already termed the upcoming Noida International Airport as one of the most advanced and largest airports in the country, work on which has already begun and contract awarded to Swiss major Zurich Airport International (ZAI). One runway of the Noida international airport will be built during the first phase of construction with a focus on domestic traffic in the initial years. The phase-1 of the airport will have a capacity to serve 12 million passengers a year and is scheduled to be completed in 36 months.

Ayodhya International Airport

Apart from the Noida Airport, work is already on to construct the Ayodhya International Airport, which is named Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram Airport in Ayodhya. A provision of 100 million rupees has been made for Ayodhya Airport and 377 acres of land has also been made available to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for the development of the airport. While the airport was initially conceptualized under the UDAN scheme to facilitate domestic flights connecting Ayodhya to Hindan and other airports, the Chief Minister later modified the announcement and ordered to develop the airport for Code-E B777-300 type aircraft. This is the largest aircraft that is allowed to land anywhere in India and PM Modi himself flies in one of these new-age machines.

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