Land parcels around the newly inaugurated Noida airport present an opportunity to emulate what Dubai and South Korea have achieved. Experts say the surrounding ecosystem will determine its success
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the first phase of the Noida International Airport in Jewar in March amid much fanfare, all eyes are now on how the nearby regions grow. If remains to be seen if the airport—pegged to emerge as a possible global transit hub—can emulate global peers in Dubai and Korea.
Industry executives and experts are closely watching if Jewar is able to transform itself into a perfectly positioned hub for India, and emerge as a textbook example of an aerotropolis—which can be narrowly defined as a city planned around its airport. The ideal aerotropolis is an amalgamation of made-to-order office parks, convention hotels, cargo complexes and even factories, which in some cases line the runways.
Both South Korea and Dubai started work on their aerotropolis models in the early part of the millennium. And both were state sponsored.
South Korea realised after the 1988 Olympics that their existing airport would not be able to handle the growing passenger traffic. In 2002, the country started working on Songdo, a city around the Incheon International Airport, an airport whose construction started nearly a decade ago. The city was made on 600 hectares of land reclaimed from the Yellow Sea, as there were barely any land parcels available. It was linked by a 12 km bridge to the airport. Billed as a smart and green city, the airport and city have become one of the key global cities and airports.
In Dubai’s case, the city built its infrastructure ahead of the demand surge. Dubai shifted from a shipping-based economy to an aviation-centric one, with first the Dubai International Airport and now the Al Maktoum International Airport. The Dubai International Airport contributes over $26 billion to the city’s economy, and has emerged as one of the biggest transit hubs across the globe.
