The Price of Progress: Noida International Airport against the Farmers

 

The Price of Progress: Noida International Airport against the Farmers

An article by Lola Radix - April 28th, 2026.

“A man stands on the rubble of demolished houses in Jewar’s Nagla Ganeshi, one of the seven villages that have been acquired for construction of an international airport. (HT Photo)” (Sharma 2021)

Noida International Airport’s Inauguration

 

On March 28, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, inaugurated the Noida International Airport, announced to be National Capital Region’s second airport (Chandra 2026). He promised that the airport would benefit the whole region by boosting economic growth (“NDTV” 2026).
However, ten days earlier, farmers had been protesting at the airport gates because they were forced to sell their land to the government (Alam 2026).

 

How the government can take your land

 

To understand what happened in Jewar, you first need to understand a legal principle that governments rarely advertise: eminent domain. Eminent domain is rooted in two Latin maxims: Salus populi suprema lex (“the welfare of the people is the paramount law”) and Necessitas publica major est quam privata (“public necessity is greater than private necessity”) according to Wikipedia Contributors (2025). Hence, the state has the power to seize private lands for public use.

In India, eminent domain is governed by the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013, which requires fair compensation and rehabilitation for displaced families (Narayanan and Goswami 2025).

 

The acquisition: 2019 to today

 

Land acquisition for the Noida International Airport began in 2019, affecting 14 villages in the Jewar Area (Ashni Dhaor 2026). Approximately 16,000 families were displaced and the official compensation stood as Rs 4,300 per square metre, with interest (Ashni Dhaor 2026).

In April 2026, seven years after the acquisition began, the government was still setting up daily compensation camps in each of the 14 villages to speed up payouts and “cut red tape” (Ashni Dhaor 2026).

Some farmers will not receive any money from the government because they decided not to accept it:“we were silenced and our land was forcefully taken away from us” (Matharu 2022).

 

The promise made and broken

 

When families gave up their land, they were promised something beyond money: jobs within the airport. However, the jobs on offer came from third-party private contractors, not the airport itself (ET Online 2026). For many young men from farming families, this felt like a betrayal, leading to protests (Alam 2026).

 

Life after displacement

 

Most articles about the airport only mention how successful its inauguration was and the benefits it will bring to the region. However, they rarely mention the emotional cost of displacement for families. Villagers described the demolition of their ancestral homes as deeply traumatic. For them, this is not only a loss of property but the loss of generations of social ties, local traditions and community identity (Sharma 2021).

 

Moreover, the financial compensation they received only provided short-term benefits. iPhones, SUVs and motorcycles became commonplace, but very little investment took place.

With no agricultural income to sustain them and little access to financial education, many families found themselves spending their money without a plan. Those who tried to reinvest in farmland discovered that prices had skyrocketed. “We bought land far away, but cannot go there to cultivate it. We have to give it on lease,” says Satish Rana, Tomar’s neighbour (Matharu 2022).

 

The bigger picture

 

Jewar is just an example among many others. Indeed, government land acquisition schemes have displaced more than 20 million people over the last 40 years, with 70% failing to receive proper compensation or relocation assistance (Karmakar 2017).

 

Displacement following government land acquisition can have many consequences. According to Michael M. Cernea, these include landlessness, joblessness, marginalisation, loss of access to common property resources, increased morbidity and mortality, food insecurity, homelessness, and social disarticulation (Wikipedia contributors, 2025). Loss of education is an additional consequence.

 

Conclusion: who does development actually serves?

The Noida International Airport is going to boost tourism, real estate and economic growth more generally. It will also help Uttar Pradesh claim the title of one of India’s most airport-dense states.

This is, without doubt, a triumph for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But at what cost?

The people who were forced to sell their land for this airport, who were displaced, who protested, who waited years for compensation that still has not fully arrived, are in some cases worse off than they were in 2019.

This raises the question of whether development projects benefit the wider community or whether they are intended to improve Modi’s image…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Alam, Shafaque. 2026. “Need Jobs, but Not from Private Vendors: Youths Stage Protest near Noida Airport.” The Times of India. The Times Of India. March 17, 2026. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/need-jobs-but-not-from-private-vendors-youths-stage-protest-near-noida-airport/articleshow/129617866.cms.

Ashni Dhaor. 2026. “Land Payout Camps at 14 Jewar Villages from Today for Noida International Airport Expansion.” The Times of India. The Times Of India. April 2, 2026. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/land-payout-camps-at-14-jewar-villages-from-today-for-noida-international-airport-expansion/articleshow/129988196.cms.

Chandra, Jagriti. 2026. “PM Inaugurates Noida International Airport; Operations yet to Begin.” The Hindu. March 28, 2026. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttar-pradesh/noida-international-airport-pm-modi-inauguration/article70795653.ece.

ET Online. 2026. “Land Given, Jobs Pending: Jewar Youths Disillusioned as Noida Airport Nears Launch.” The Economic Times. Economic Times. March 27, 2026. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/noida-airport-promises-unfulfilled-disillusionment-grows-among-jewar-youths-awaiting-jobs/articleshow/129847265.cms?from=mdr.

Karmakar, Pallav. 2017. “Politics of Development.” Journal of Land and Rural Studies 5 (2): 164–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/2321024917703848.

Matharu, Sonal. 2022. “Jewar’s Taking off but on Ground Are Broken Promises, Villages Divided & Jobless Crorepatis.” ThePrint. theprint. May 22, 2022. https://theprint.in/feature/jewars-taking-off-but-on-ground-are-broken-promises-villages-divided-jobless-crorepatis/965603/.

Narayanan, Sangeeth , and Debasmita Goswami. 2025. “As India Expands Its Infrastructure Footprint, the Rights of Landowners Often Clash with the Power of Eminent Domain. This Article Explores the Evolution from the 1894 Land Acquisition Act to the Progressive 2013 Law, Highlighting Compensation, Resettlement, and Judicial Safeguards That Now Define Land Acquisition in India.” Neeti Niyaman. July 31, 2025. https://neetiniyaman.com/landowners-rights-land-acquisition/.

“NDTV.” 2026. Www.ndtv.com. 2026. https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/noida-international-airport-inauguration-live-updates-pm-narendra-modi-yogi-adityanath-jewar-airport-opening-today-flights-schedule-traffic-advisory-11277332.

Sharma, Manoj. 2021. “Pangs of Displacement in Jewar | India News.” Hindustan Times. June 13, 2021. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pangs-of-displacement-in-jewar-101623623500035.html.

Wikipedia Contributors. 2025. “Land Acquisition in India.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. December 22, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_acquisition_in_India.