LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday brought up the reference of Jinnah yet again while employing his 'Ganna versus Jinnah' plank during the foundation-laying ceremony of the Noida International Airport, the largest such project in India, at Jewar on Thursday.
Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the UP CM said Jewar is known for its exquisite sugarcane. "While the farmers of Jewar worked to increase the sweetness of sugarcane of this region, some replaced the sweetness with bitterness with a series of regular riots. Today, there are two options in front of the country -- whether it wants to spread the sweetness of ganna or let the followers of Jinnah run riot," the Chief Minister said sounding the poll bugle.
Yogi Adityanath's 'Ganna versus Jinnah' narrative dates back to 2018 when he coined the phrase at the time of the Kairana Lok Sabah constituency by-polls. The more recent reference to this was when Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav drew a parallel between the efforts of Jinnah in the freedom struggle and those of Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel at a public rally during a high-voltage campaign for the assembly elections due early next year.
"Sardar Patel, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute and became barristers. They helped (India) get freedom and never backed away from any struggle," Akhilesh had claimed, stirring a row and drawing a strong reaction from various political corners. Akhilesh refused to withdraw his remarks even after strong criticism.
Listing out the achievements of his government during the last five years in the state, CM Yogi claimed that UP was moving ahead on the path of development. He extended his gratitude to over 7000 farmers who, he said, had come down to Lucknow without any pressure to offer their land for the ambitious airport project.
According to the Union Civil Aviation ministry, the cost of the Jewar international airport is estimated to be around Rs 34,000 crore and the development of the first phase of the airport would be done at around Rs 10,050 crore.
The Noida International Airport (NIA) will be India's largest airport and Uttar Pradesh's fifth international airport after its completion. It is at a distance of about 72 km from the existing IGI airport in New Delhi, 40 km from Noida, and about 40 km from the multi-modal logistics hub at Dadri.
The Jewar greenfield airport project, a zero-pollution facility, is being built on 1,334 hectares of land. It will be implemented in four phases. The construction of the first phase is to be completed in 36 month.
An agreement was signed in October last year with the concessionaire Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), a special purpose vehicle of the bid winner Zurich International Airport AG. As per the agreement, the first phase of the project will have to be completed by September 29, 2024.
According to the Union civil aviation secretary, a traffic of 12 million passengers each year is expected in the first phase and by the completion of the final phase, i.e. between 2040 and 2050, the capacity of Jewar airport will be enhanced to handle 70 million passengers per year.
The UP government has spent Rs 4,326 crore on the acquisition of land, rehabilitation and resettlement.