According to the Master Plan for the airport, a bay providing access to buses, tram, metro line, bullet train from within its premises will be constructed so passengers do not have to exit to travel to further destinations.

As the date for the operationalisation of the Jewar Airport inches closer, Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) has roped in multiple agencies to provide multi-modal connectivity to it through routes across road, trains, rapid rails and the Expressway.

Several agencies are part of the NIAL’s bid to connect the project through various modes — such as the North Central Railway, National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) — but there are hiccups, too.

In a meeting with all the agencies concerned held on Friday, NIAL told the North Central Railways that it would not be able to go ahead with its proposed plan of connecting Chola in Bulandshahr and Rundhi in Haryana with the Jewar Airport. “Chola is on the Amritsar-Calcutta line and Rundhi is on the Mumbai-Delhi line. Jewar airport lies between both these railway lines; so, for connectivity with both the stations, Northern railway has prepared a plan and also done an initial survey. This is not the final alignment,” said Dr Arun Vir Singh, CEO of NIAL.

According to Singh, NIAL had suggested that Chola be connected on the east side because of the shorter distance of 16 kilometers which would also open an area for logistics and warehousing and, simultaneously, also help to expand the Chola railway station.

“However, the railways have proposed to connect it through the south side. Because of this, it would affect our aviation hub and upcoming runways. This is not possible to accept. We have suggested that that railway line can pass along the periphery area of the aviation hub; if they want to follow the same alignment, they have to do it underground,” he added.

Apart from this, Singh said a 75-meter road on the north side of the airport, 750 meters extra VIP road on the west side, which can also be utilised for cargo movement, and another 60-meter road for the airport will be completed before the operationalisation of the airport.

Other modes of transportation, however, will take some time to be put in place; but connectivity through buses

will be available from the very beginning. “It will take around two to three more years for the Rapid Rail and Pod Taxi, for which feasibility study has been completed and DPR is being prepared. We have also planned for the operation of buses from day one. It is yet to be decided whether this will be through private or UPSRTC buses, but 80 buses will ply from the first day of the operation of the airport,” he said.

According to the Master Plan for the airport, a bay providing access to buses, tram, metro line, bullet train from within its premises will be constructed so passengers do not have to exit to travel to further destinations.

“Land for this has already been earmarked and it will provide multimodal connectivity underground… Passengers will not need to come out of the terminal,” he said, adding that the DPR for an RRTS from the IGI airport in Delhi to the Jewar Airport was being prepared.