NEW DELHI: India will build a second international airport near its capital city in the next four to five years, costing an estimated $3.1 billion, the government announced yesterday.
It aims to meet explosive growth in passenger traffic.
The Noida International Airport near New Delhi will be built from scratch in phases and is expected to cater to 30-50 million passengers per year (MPPA) over the next 10-15 years, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.
Air travel in India has boomed in the last decade as it opened up to competition, ticket prices were slashed and the number of people wealthy enough to travel swelled.
Air traffic in New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport is expected to reach up to 91 MPPA in next three years and touch its peak handling capacity of 109 MPPA by 2024, the statement said, highlighting the need for a second airport near the capital city.