Located 72 km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, NIAL will be built on 1,334 hectares in the adjoining state of Uttar Pradesh. Work on phase one of the NIAL project started a couple of days ago
PRAVASISAMWAD.COM
The Indian capital, Delhi, will see its second international airport in a few years. The Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL), when completed, will be the largest in the country and will be the National Capital Region’s third, after the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) and Ghaziabad’s Hindon airport. Incidentally, the IGIA currently serving the needs of the entire National Capital Region, is expected to reach its peak capacity in a few years.
Located 72 km from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, NIAL will be built on 1,334 hectares in the adjoining state of Uttar Pradesh. Work on phase one of the NIAL project started a couple of days ago. The special purpose vehicle created for developing the airport, the Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), sent out a statement about the commencement of work: “We have commenced preparatory work at the construction site of the airport after getting approvals from all the relevant authorities. We are also thankful to the Uttar Pradesh government in providing us full support to expedite work at the airport site.” YIAPL is a fully-owned subsidiary of Zurich Airport International, the Swiss company that will develop the project.
The first phase of the airport will be completed in 36 months and includes operations with one runway. Later, of course, more runways will be added. In each phase, the airport will expand to serve 70 million passengers by the end of phase 4, subject to passenger growth and traffic, according to officials
Recently, YIAPL signed the financing agreements with the State Bank of India (SBI) and Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL), the Government of Uttar Pradesh’s nodal agency for the project, to achieve financial close of the Noida International Airport (NIA) project. YIAPL has raised INR 3,725 crore in debt from SBI to be repaid over a period of 20 years with one-year moratorium post completion of the project.
This is one of the largest financings in an Indian Greenfield airport. The financial close marks another crucial milestone for the project, bringing it closer to start of construction works.
The project has been funded on a debt-to-equity ratio of 65:35. Zurich Airport International AG (ZAIA), a fully owned subsidiary of Flughafen Zurich AG, is the main shareholder of YIAPL and is injecting INR 2005 crore as equity into the development of Noida International Airport.
Christoph Schnellmann, Chief Executive Officer, YIAPL said, “We are delighted to have signed the financing agreements with SBI and NIAL to develop Noida International Airport. This marks the financial close for the project, and we now eagerly look forward to the development of the airport in close collaboration with our partners including NIAL and SBI. This partnership will boost economic growth and employment in the State of Uttar Pradesh and will bolster Indian aviation’s growth story”.
Dr. Arun Vir Singh, Chief Executive Officer, NIAL said, “We are pleased to see the achievement of financial close, a crucial milestone for the Project. This will enable the team to focus on construction works for the airport development. We are all eagerly waiting to build India’s leading airport which will boast of quality, efficiency, technology, and sustainability. We are very excited and all set to move ahead with a vision to co-create world-class aviation infrastructure”.
NIA is striving to make air travel more affordable for airlines and passengers by building the infrastructure in a sustainable and cost-effective manner using renewable energy. NIA is envisaged to become India’s first net zero emission airport. The airport will combine Indian culture and hospitality with Swiss technology and efficiency to develop a modern, consumer-first design, inspired by India. NIA will be a fully digital airport in India, enabling contactless travel and personalized services for families/elderly and business travellers.
According to the proposed plan, the airport will handle up to 60 million passengers per annum (MPA) to 120 MPA, after its expansion over a period of 30 years
The first phase of the airport will be completed in 36 months and includes operations with one runway. Later, of course, more runways will be added. In each phase, the airport will expand to serve 70 million passengers by the end of phase 4, subject to passenger growth and traffic, according to officials. According to the proposed plan, the airport will handle up to 60 million passengers per annum (MPA) to 120 MPA, after its expansion over a period of 30 years.
Earlier in July this year, the shareholder agreement between Zurich Airport International AG (ZAIA) and Noida International Airport Limited was signed in Lucknow. Arunvir Singh, CEO NIAL, and Christoph Schnellmann, CEO YIAPL, signed the agreement in the presence of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath; Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh; and S P Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh.
As per the agreement, NIAL will hold one golden share in Yamuna International Airport Pvt Ltd (YIAPL) and the right to nominate two directors to the board. The directors to be added to the board will be Dr Arun Vir Singh, CEO, NIAL, and Vishak Iyer, Director Civil Aviation, Government of Uttar Pradesh.
The shareholder agreement marked another important milestone for the Noida International Airport project and the much-awaited aviation infrastructure in the NCR region and in Uttar Pradesh. Jointly committed, ZAIA and the UP Government are developing Noida International Airport as an upcoming world-class airport. The agreement also underpinned the state government’s support to establish and continuously improve surface access to the airport, establish and expand utilities required to run the airport (water, electricity, wastewater), maintain law and order, including monitoring at the airport and grant the necessary clearances to build and operate the airport.
According to the Techno Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers the airport will be able to handle 2.5 million tons of cargo in the coming 20-odd years. In the first phase the airport will cater to 0.5 million tons of cargo. The tonnage would rise to 2.6 million tons by 2045
Long-delayed, the beginning of construction has created quite a stir among air cargo stakeholders. Some time ago, Daniel Bircher, CEO of Zurich Airport International Asia and CMD of YIAPL, in an email interview pointed out that “Noida International Airport (NIA) will be a truly modern, efficient and customer-friendly airport, offering the highest levels of convenience and ease of making connections to the passengers as well as commercial benefits to its partners. It will be the perfect amalgamation of Indian design, technology and hospitality combined with Swiss quality and efficiency. We aim for it to be the most convenient transfer airport in the country. Finally, given the land available, NIA will be able to develop together with our logistics partners a flexible, modular, cost-effective cargo and logistics infrastructure to service the NCR logistics demand.”
Bircher went on to mention that “NIA has the unique opportunity to build a greenfield logistics infrastructure in cooperation with the logistics partners, eCommerce companies as well as with freight forwarders”. He said that the airport would see a gradual development of airside infrastructure as far as cargo was concerned with “up to 25 dedicated cargo aircraft stands, cargo terminals with optimal depth and airside staging areas, space to locate dedicated perishable terminals (if required) to cater for the growing fruit (mangoes) and vegetable logistics”. The important element, he emphasised would be “flexible and modular infrastructure for freight forwarders with ample landside parking areas. Finally, NIA has already a good accessibility for logistics and 24hr operations will additionally help to push this development”.
According to the Techno Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers the airport will be able to handle 2.5 million tons of cargo in the coming 20-odd years. In the first phase the airport will cater to 0.5 million tons of cargo. The tonnage would rise to 2.6 million tons by 2045. The report stated that the cargo generated in the entire hinterland would be divided between the upcoming airport and the Delhi IGI airport. The distance between the airport and the cargo generating centers is expected to be a key factor influencing cargo movement.
It is no wonder that Bircher said optimistically: “We are convinced about the Indian growth story and are willing to contribute to the government’s plan to create a $5 trillion economy. Disposable income, propensity to travel, economic and city side development in catchment areas and expected growth in air travel are some factors that form the basis of our proposal. We are convinced that the Delhi National Capital Region, as one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, requires additional airport capacity. Furthermore, efficient and sustainable operations will ensure long-term profitability for the airport.”
Sometime ago, Bircher in an email interview had mentioned that Noida International Airport’s vision was to be India’s leading airport in terms of quality, efficiency, technology and a role model for sustainable infrastructure and operations. He had said: “Noida International Airport (NIA) will be a truly modern, efficient and customer-friendly airport, offering the highest levels of convenience and ease of making connections to the passengers as well as commercial benefits to its partners. It will be the perfect amalgamation of Indian design, technology and hospitality combined with Swiss quality and efficiency. We aim for it to be the most convenient transfer airport in the country. Finally, given the land available, NIA will be able to develop together with our logistics partners a flexible, modular, cost-effective cargo and logistics infrastructure to service the NCR logistics demand.”’
He said that “NIA will focus on developing a Digital Airport- implementation of state of the art and proven technology that supports seamless and contactless travel for passengers. NIA differentiators will be – ease of way finding, optimum dwell time and seamless travel experience. The digital airport will also provide ‘Plug & Play’ environment for airlines with the objective to maximize passenger experience, minimize start-up cost for the airline, provide overall cost efficiency and operational efficiency. Our focus will be to keep in mind our customers’ needs and use of technology, while designing the processes and facilities. We will implement the full potential of digital possibilities including Artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as common and shared data platforms for the airport eco-system.”
Noida Airport will be completely digital, he said. “NIA will provide a seamless and mostly contactless flow through the airport by means of integrated systems and services, including those provided by technology partners. This will be supported by the use of technologies such as indoor geolocation, identity management, flow management, data mining and IoT. It is also about making these digital technologies secure in the cyber world to ensure that every system works as intended. The digital environment to be set up at NIA will include a paperless and hassle-free biometric journey across all checkpoints and processors in line with Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation’s DigiYatra Policy and IATA’s ONE ID programme.”
NIA will become, Bircher had said, “India’s first ‘net zero emissions’ airport. NIA, with its cost-effective processes, will offer low turnaround costs for the airline partners. Both production and consumption of renewable energy and fuels, water conservation and inclusive waste management will be our focus. NIA is looking at all out operations with electric vehicles and the required charging infrastructure. It will be a modern, user friendly and efficient airport.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone in a few days.