Government to set-up 51 new low-cost Airports to Increase Air Connectivity

The Union Government of India on 28 June 2013 decided to set up 51 new low-cost airports in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of the nation. The decision was taken with an aim to the give a boost to civil aviation sector and increase air connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Airport Authority of India (AAI) will be responsible for setting-up the airports in 51 different cities across different states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

The Union Government also made a decision to grant international airport status to the airports of Imphal and Bhubaneswar at a cost of 20000 crore rupees.

The decisions were taken at a meeting that was headed by the Prime Minister to finalise infrastructure projects for 2013-14.

During the same meet, the Union Government also decided to award construction of eight Greenfield Airports in 2013 under public-private-participation (PPP) mode that includes Navi Mumbai, Juhu in Mumbai, Goa, Kannur, Rajguru Nagar Chakan at Pune, Sriperumbudur, Bellary and Raigarh.

To encourage investors, the Union Government declared an investment target of 1.15 lakh crore rupees under the PPP project in different sectors of infrastructure like civil aviation, rail, port and power in the next six months.