New $1 Billion Airport Near Delhi to Test India’s Buildout Boom

Realtors in Jewar are ecstatic. A construction frenzy sparked by an airport project has swept through this otherwise monotonous farming town near New Delhi.

Landowners are rushing to put up dummy houses to inflate valuations, leaving behind piles of bricks and debris. Fenced-off plots have become a common sight, some of them marked by billboards touting future industrial zones: Apparel Park, Medical Park, Leather Park and Toy Park. Two banks have recently opened, a service that was previously miles away. An eatery ‘Jewar Airport Restaurant,’ still smelling of fresh paint, serves a hodgepodge menu of North Indian curries, noodles, pizzas and burgers. Most of its customers are farmers who sold ancestral land during the ongoing real estate rush.