Number of airports in India to go up to over 200: Jyotiraditya Scindia

The Civil Aviation Ministry has drawn up plans to boost air connectivity by taking the total number of airports operating in the country to over 200 over the next fivesix years under its vision of increasing the width and depth of air penetration Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said here on SaturdayScindia here on a brief visit said in its 67 years of independence the country saw only 74 new airports being built while in the last 85 years it has been increased to 147 under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruleWe are just one short of doubling that number The 148th airport will be also completed this month itself which means that what India took 6667 years to build and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has been done in a period of nine years he told reportersScindia said the Ministry has envisaged to take the number of airports operating in the country to over 200 in the next five to six yearsAnother 50 additional airports waterdromes and heliports have been sanctioned in the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Under UDAAN scheme we were building 100 airports and now we will build 150 airports waterdromes and heliports in the next couple of years to come he saidStressing that the air connectivity in the country cannot be focused only by expanding international routes he said air connectivity should be expanded to tierII and III citiesUnder the Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik UDAN scheme we have introduced small aircraft scheme last year which will be only sub20 seater aircraft These are all not ATRs not Boeing or Airbus not big aircraft These are sub20 seater aircraft so that the penetration is down to the grassrootslevel he saidScindia said such aircraft were currently being operated in Uttarakhand Himachal Pradesh North Eastern States and advanced landing grounds have been activated on the border of Arunachal Pradesh so that there is 100 per cent penetrationAlso Read Congress unveils candidature for Ramgarh assembly bypollsThe mantra of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that air penetration must encompass across the length and breadth of the country he saidTo a query about the greenfield airport at Parandur near Chennai he said the Ministry was in discussion with TIDCO Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd and was examining the project proposal It would issue the site and inprinciple approval through the Airport Authority of India and Directorate General of Civil AviationDGCA AAI have to look into the proposal for new airport to see if there are any obstacles on flight path from safety and security angle Your question should be directed to the State government he said while responding to a query about the protest by villagers in Parandur opposing the projectIn August 2022 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said a second airport for the city would come up at Parandur near Sriperumbudur at an estimated Rs 20000 crore with an annual capacity of 10 crore passengersThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever