PM wanted Asia's biggest airport in UP: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Noida, Nov 25: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction that Asia's biggest airport has to be built in Uttar Pradesh, as he joined the foundation-laying ceremony for the Noida International Airport.

Scindia said the airport, located in Jewar in Gautam Buddh Nagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, will bring investments worth Rs 34,000 crore and the first phase of the Greenfield project is expected to be completed in 2024 with a capacity of 1.2 crore passengers annually.

"By the last phase of development, the Noida International Airport will even surpass Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport and become India's leading airport," Scindia told the gathering.

He said earlier, there were only four airports in Uttar Pradesh but now, there are nine airports and this (Jewar) will be the 10th airport in the state, as he hit out at the previous non-BJP governments. "It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's direction that Asia's biggest airport has to be built in Uttar Pradesh," Scindia said.

"Where there is a will, there is a way.... It was an ambitious resolution of the prime minister, which has come true today," he added.

The much-awaited project is being flagged off just weeks before schedule of the UP Assembly elections are announced.