NEW DELHI: Apart from a huge gathering of locals, thousands of people from Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Hathras, Aligarh and Agra districts reached Jewar on tractors and motorcycles on Thursday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Noida International Airport. The greenfield airport, coming up near Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh, is billed to be India’s largest upon completion.
A thick blanket of security personnel enveloped the event venue and visitors were frisked before being allowed to enter the ‘jan sabha’. The police had banned black flags at the site. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his cabinet colleagues attended the event. “The foundation stone of the world’s fourth largest international airport, ‘Noida International Airport’ will be laid by respected Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji today. This airport will give Uttar Pradesh a new global identity. With this, Uttar Pradesh will be the only state to house five international airports,” Adityanath had tweeted in Hindi earlier.
BJP leader and Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh, who played a key role during negotiations with farmers over land acquisition, led a convoy of hundreds of supporters to the venue. The MLA himself drove a tractor as a number of people on motorcycles, cars, tractors and buses followed him to the event site, where personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, Rapid Action Force and Provincial Armed Constabulary, besides the police were deployed.
Later, traffic snarls were reported on various road stretches leading out of Jewar as thousands of people started their return journey after Modi’s event. People got stuck even on the Yamuna Expressway while on their way to Noida and Delhi, while those travelling to Agra and further got stuck at the Jewar toll plaza.
The airport is being developed by Swiss concessionaire Zurich International Airport AG’s subsidiary Yamuna International Airport Private Limited for the Uttar Pradesh government.