During the last three years, Government of India (GoI) has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of two Greenfield Airports across the country namely Jewar (2018) in Uttar Pradesh and Hollongi (2019) in Arunachal Pradesh.  Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UDAN (UdeDeshkaAamNagrik) on 21-10-2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity. An airport which is included in the awarded routes of RCS – UDAN and requires upgradation/development for commencement of RCS operations, is developed under “Revival of unserved and underserved airports” scheme. Under the scheme, as on 20.07.2021, 59 airports including 2 water aerodromes and 5 heliports have been revived/operationalized.

During the last five years (FY 2016-17 to FY 2020-21), an amount of Approx. Rs. 17784 crore has been spent by the Government/Airports Authority of India in renovating/building airports.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) has recently awarded six airports namely Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Guwahati in Assam, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Mangaluru in Karnataka for Operations, Management and Development under Public Private Partnership (PPP) for a period of 50 years.  AAI will get back their investment in these six airports to the tune of Rs. 2299 Cr. As upfront payment.  AAI will also get Per Passenger Fee, indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), from the PPP Partner. Post PPP, the estimated net benefits accruing to AAI are more than the net benefits that  AAI would have  got had it operated the six airports on its own.  AAI is not required to incur any CAPEX and OPEX at these airports during the lease period.

This information was given byGeneral (Retd.) Dr.V.K. Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION  in a written reply to Dr. L. Hanumanthaiahin Rajya Sabha today.

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RKJ/M

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