Akhil Vaani | Jewar: From A Wheat Field In UP To One Of Asia's Most Ambitious Airport Projects

Jewar is no ordinary infrastructure addition. It is India's largest greenfield airport project, 100 per cent funded by Foreign Direct Investment.

On 28 March 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first phase of the Noida International Airport — popularly known as Jewar Airport — located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, approximately 72 kilometres from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. It was a moment that had been two and a half decades in the making: first proposed in 2001, formally approved in 2015, and finally opened after multiple construction delays and missed deadlines.

With this, the Jewar airport, which arrived two decades of dreams, delays, and determination, has finally opened its doors — poised to become one of Asia’s largest aviation hubs.

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Largest Greenfield Project

Jewar is no ordinary infrastructure addition. It is India’s largest greenfield airport project, 100 per cent funded by Foreign Direct Investment, operated under a 40-year public-private partnership by Yamaha International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) — a wholly owned subsidiary of Switzerland’s Zurich Airport International AG. Built by Tata Projects Limited at a Phase 1 cost of Rs.11,200 crore ($1.2 billion), Jewar is designed to eventually become one of the largest aviation hubs in Asia, serving up to 70 million passengers annually by 2040 and potentially 120–150 million by 2050.

Two Decades from Dream to Runway

The idea of a greenfield airport near Jewar was first floated in 2001 by then–Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh as a “Taj International Aviation Hub." For over a decade, the project drifted through political changes, location disputes, and environmental challenges........

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