Prospects of an international airport near Greater Noida has brightened with the Uttar Pradesh government including Jewar as a possible site along with Kushinagar and Agra in its letter to the Centre.

The Centre is also looking at the possibility of overriding the concerns of the Delhi airport operator and using a special provision to set up a second airport within 150km of an existing facility. Existing rules don't allow a second airport within a 150km radius of an existing one, unless the latter is operating to capacity and is unable to meet the city's demand. That is why Navi Mumbai, a suburb of Mumbai, is getting an airport.

"We will examine the issues and see how we can take it forward," said a government source. Other sources also said that Centre has enough legal backing to opt for a second airport, but they didn't elaborate.

Talk of an international airport in Greater Noida resurfaced after newly appointed junior minister in the civil aviation ministry and MP from Gautam Budh Nagar, Mahesh Sharma, said he will explore the possibility of setting up the project.

The expansion plans for IGI Airport are expected to meet the capital's requirement till the late 2020s. But the GMR Group is opposed to the idea of another airport for Delhi as it says that would render both the airports economically unviable. Because of these reasons, the Jewar airport project did not take off.

Moreover, DIAL enjoys the right to veto any second airport that conflicts with the mandatory 150km stipulation.

In 2001, then UP CM Rajnath Singh had proposed an airport in Greater Noida. Later, the Mayawati government also attempted to get approval for the project in Jewar. The UP government acquired 2,471 acres of land, spread across 35 villages for the airport project in 2003. But the Akhilesh Yadav government had scrapped the project.