Noida airport ready to fly, job hopes stay grounded in Jewar

NOIDA: In 2019, when land acquisition began for Noida International Airport, Saurav Kumar saw a future that would not involve getting out of Jewar and joining the rat race in Delhi or another big city.

A BTech student then, Saurav went on to study MTech in automobile engineering, hoping to have the right qualification for the jobs he expected to come to town, accompanying the airport.

His family was among those that gave up land for the project and was assured of a job, besides compensation. The money came, but not the job. Like Saurav, many Jewar youths have become steadily disillusioned as the airport has taken shape and is now ready for inauguration.

It’s not that jobs have not been offered, but those have come from third-party contractors. For job security, local youths have been demanding direct employment under YIAPL, the Zurich AG subsidiary that is building the airport. Families that had opted for job guarantees over higher compensation, as a result, feel their excitement about the airport dampened.

“I did not sit for placements in my college, assuming I would get a job at the airport. I thought I should not start a job that I would have to leave,” says Saurav, who regrets that decision with his wait for a job at the airport now stretching into year 7 and no real assurance that it will end any time soon. “After waiting for the job till 2022, I decided to take up teaching positions till the time I got a job with the airport,” he adds.

But the only job Saurav has now is teaching local youths to prepare for entrance exams. “We were told our degrees would matter. But the jobs being offered don’t match that promise,” he says.

Saurav’s story echoes across six villages in Jewar that are closest to the airport and were affected by land acquisition. Land for the first phase was acquired from Rohi, Parohi, Banwaribas, Kishorpur, Ranhera and Dayanatpur.

Locals say they were given a choice: a one-time additional compensation of around Rs 5 lakh or assured employment for one family member in the airport project. Around 335 youths, they claim, chose the job option, expecting direct employment with Yamuna International Airport Pvt Ltd, the concessionaire for the airport.

Hansraj Singh, a farmer from Dayanatpur, gave up nearly 25 acres of land and received Rs 6 crore as compensation. Today, he lives in the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) colony at Jewar Bangar where the landlosers were resettled. “My elder son was working in Gurgaon as a deputy general manager. He left that job in 2020 and came back, hoping to work at the airport,” Singh says, referring to terms in the R&R draft about one member of each affected family getting priority in jobs created by the project after being provided necessary training. If employment was not possible, compensation or annuity would be provided, the draft said.

“It was not just a verbal assurance. It was given to us in writing,” says Nitish Bhardwaj from Banwaribas. “We chose long-term security over immediate extra cash.”

Nitish, who is a BTech in civil engineering, also stayed put in Jewar, expecting a call for a job at the airport. His career has gone nowhere. Nitish now works for a local company in Greater Noida. “If I was not waiting for the airport job, my career graph would have been very different,” he says.

Interview calls finally began coming in Sept 2025. “Initially, there was excitement,” says Chand Saifi, an unemployed youth from Dayanatpur. “But when we reached, we found the jobs were not under YIAPL but from contractors.”

The positions on offer were for security guards and janitorial staff. Youths protested at the site and were assured by officials their concerns would be addressed. On Dec 2, they were called again. “The same thing happened. We sat on protest till senior officials assured us the issue would be looked into,” Saifi says.

On Feb 6, they staged another protest at the airport gate and dispersed after fresh assurances. More protests, and more assurances, followed on Feb 23, March 16 and March 23. “In total, we have protested six times since Sept,” says Saurav. “Every time, we are asked to wait.”

Those without the college degrees are also unhappy that the skill development promise was overlooked.

“The R&R draft stated youths in project-affected families will be given skill training under CSR (corporate social responsibility). It has been seven years. No training programmes have been conducted for us. But now, we are being told that since we don’t have the required skills, we should take whatever is offered,” says Priyanka, a job seeker from Kishorpur. She was 20 years old at the time of land acquisition and had opted for an airport job. Today, she is married and settled in Palwal, but travels over 100km to Jewar to demand for her rights.

With repeated assurances failing to translate into concrete action, the youths decided to escalate their protest and organised a sit-in protest at the airport gate on Wednesday. Around 9pm, officials from the district administration and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) reached the spot and accepted their demands in writing.

“All of the youth will be provided on-rolls job with YIAPL according to their skills. The joining letter will be of YIAPL, job location will be Jewar, and the letter will have signatures from NIAL (UP govt’s special purpose vehicle for the airport) and YIAPL,” a YEIDA official told TOI.

Saurav, however, says the youths are not buying this assurance and will gather at the airport during its inauguration by the PM on Saturday morning. “We feel the local administration cannot resolve this. But the chief minister and Prime Minister Modi will understand our situation,” Saurav adds.

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