The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has so far accorded 'in-principle' approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country namely Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Bijapur, Hassan and Shimoga in Karnataka, Datia(Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuramand Oravakal in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh.
Eight of these airports namely Durgapur, Shirdi, Sindhudurg, Pakyong, Kannur, Kalaburagi, Oravakal and Kushinagar have been operationalized.
This information was given by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen. (retd) V. K.Singh, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
Besides, under the UDAN regional connectivity scheme, so far, 154 airports including 14 water aerodromes and 36 helipads have been identified for development and upgradation.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) has also taken up the development of new airports as well as expansion and upgradation of existing airports at an estimated cost of around Rs 25,000 crores in the next 4-5 years.
This includes expansion and modification of existing terminals, new terminals, expansion or strengthening of existing runways, aprons, Airport Navigation Services control towers and technical blocks.
In addition, three Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru have undertaken major expansion plans to the tune of Rs. 30,000 crores by 2025. These projects are at various stages of planning or development.
