Shortly after CM Yogi finalised the airport's logo and design, biscuit brand Priyagold set up its manufacturing facility in Jewar—a 953.39 crore investment.
theprint.in
Six months after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved the design and logo for Jewar airport in December 2020, Surya Global, owner of the popular Indian biscuit brand Priyagold, started the construction of its manufacturing facility in August 2021. It has invested Rs 953.39 crore in an area of 38.10 acres. Restaurant chain Bikanervala also set up shop in the same area, Sector 32, roughly 10 km from the airport. It has invested Rs 160.27 crore for a 25-acre plot of land. Construction work on the facility began in January this year.
While approvals came in some time ago, the definitive news that the airport will be operational by 2024 became the catalyst for the construction process,” said Vinay Gupta, chief managing director at Bikanervala.
The packaging and labelling company, Avery Dennison, which has invested Rs 231 crore has already started manufacturing while Haldiram’s (Rs 245 crore) will also be setting up a facility in the area.
But the largest investor so far is Vivo, with a whopping Rs 5,200 crore investment in an area spread over 169.5 acres. LuLu Group International, a Middle East-based retail company, announced its export-oriented food and agriculture-produce processing park on 20 acres of land in Greater Noida. The facility is expected to generate 700 jobs and give indirect employment to 1,500 people. LuLu Group plans to invest Rs 2,500 crore in Uttar Pradesh. While two malls will open in Prayagraj and Varanasi, the third will be in Greater Noida, closer to the airport.
Phones have not stopped ringing in the offices of real estate developers in the area. Most agents told ThePrint they get at least five calls a day from potential investors. “People from NCR to Mumbai to Chennai are lining up to buy land here,” said Mohit Chaudhary, a local real estate dealer. With the cynicism of an agent who knows his market and his clients, he adds, “Many want to convert black money to white, but there are those who just want to invest in some way.”
On an average, at least two sales a week go through. Investors range from those willing to pour in crores to those with a budget of Rs 15-20 lakh.
And with good reason, too.
In less than three years, property rates have increased by 36 per cent in Greater Noida West. Along the Yamuna Expressway, real estate rates have shot up by 31 per cent from Rs 1,600 per square foot in 2019 to Rs. 2,200 per square foot, according to a recent report by Anarock Property Consultants.
As for the area near the airport, industry experts predict prices appreciating by 50-100 per cent. Additionally, residential prices are likely to increase by 40-50 per cent over the next 5-7 years.
For now, only agricultural lands can be bought in areas not designated for any government work pertaining to the airport. However, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to scam potential buyers by selling notified land that cannot technically be sold. Others try to flog plots by claiming they are ‘next to the airport’.
This was especially rampant during the first phase of land acquisition in villages such as Jewar Bangar, Modelpur and Gopalgarh. Unsuspecting buyers were unaware that the land they had bought was in fact contested. YEIDA recently demolished 11 unauthorised colonies that had come up in the region.
By the time Sudheer Sharma, a resident of Noida’s Sector 150, was ready to get a piece of the pie, he had heard of horror stories of buyers being scammed. “There are a lot of hacks out there, trying to sell land. So one has to be careful,” said Sharma, who is treading carefully in his hunt for the perfect plot of land.
This flurry of investments has given an impetus to other sectors as well. Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya, the region’s first co-educational college, will start holding classes from the end of August. Students from Jewar will no longer have to travel to Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Meerut, or Delhi for higher education.
