Lucknow, Feb 23 (Inditop.com) A delegation of MPs from Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in New Delhi Tuesday to press the state’s demand for building a new international airport in Greater Noida, officials said here.
“A delegation of MPs gave a memorandum to the union civil aviation minister today in New Delhi, urging him to give due consideration to the state government’s proposal for creating an international airport at Jewar, where we have already identified sufficient land for the purpose,” state Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh told Inditop.
The MPs were stated to have impressed upon Patel that the proposed international airport could be the best alternative to the New Delhi airport, which was “completely saturated”, he added.
Meanwhile, Singh refuted a report appearing in a section of the media about the state’s decision to shift the site of the proposed international airport from Jewar to Meerut.
“What we propose to do in Meerut was expansion of the existing airstrip there into a full fledged domestic airport to cater to the increasing demand of the local population,” Singh sought to clarify.
“And that was why we invited some consultants to submit proposals,” he said, adding there was no question of giving up the demand for an international airport in Jewar. “We have enough justification for it,” he said.
Besides relieving the increased pressure on the Delhi international airport, the proposed airport at Jewar was expected to be a boon to international tourists heading for India’s most favoured destination – Taj Mahal at Agra.
“With the Taj Expressway getting completed by the end of the current year, the driving time between Jewar and Agra would be reduced to less than an hour,” he said, adding this would mean that one could visit the Taj and be back in New Delhi on the same day.
