Greater Noida: The Jewar international airport project has received the first of the two central statutory clearances needed for construction work to start.

The approval from the Union environment ministry means the project now only needs security clearance from the Union home ministry (MHA) for the selected concessionaire, Zurich AG, to begin work at the site. Land acquisition for the first phase of the airport, which will have two runways, is complete.

Officials said the environment ministry gave its approval after reviewing the response of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), the agency piloting the airport project, to concerns about its environment management and wildlife restoration plans. The project’s proponent — the director of UP’s civil aviation department Surendra Singh — had on January 28 given a presentation before the ministry’s expert appraisal committee in New Delhi.

The presentation was based on specific plans pertaining to the rehabilitation of wildlife at the biodiversity-rich precincts of the Jewar airport site that are home to Sarus cranes and blackbucks. The ministry wanted to examine the steps the UP government was taking to conserve the flora and fauna there. Dhanauri, one of the wetlands that is expected to get Ramsar status soon, is also in the vicinity of the airport site.