The government has so far identified 50 locations for developing new airports in smaller cities and towns across the country, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, GM Siddeshwara informed the Lok Sabha.
It may be noted the Indian government has outlined plans to develop 200 low-cost airports in 20 years, mainly to connect tier-II and tier-III cities. The development of new airports in smaller cities and towns is part of the government’s efforts to encourage air travel in the country.
In the Union Budget 2014-15, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had said that the proposed new airports will be developed in smaller cities and towns and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) will build the airports through public private partnership (PPP) process.
The locations for the new airports include cities in various states including Kadapa, Tirupati, Vijayawada and Warangal in Andhra Pradesh; Along, Daparizo, Pasighat and Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh; Jorhat, Rupsi and Silchar in Assam; Gaya and Raxaul in Bihar; Bilaspur and Raigarh in Chattisgarh; and Daman and Diu in Daman & Diu.
The government has also proposed to develop airports in Bhawanagar, Jamnagar, Kandla and Keshod in Gujarat; Hisar and Karnal in Haryana; Kishtwar in J&K; Deoghar and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand; Belgaum and Hubli in Karnataka; Gwalior, Jabalpur and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh; and Akola, Amravati, Jalgaon, Kolhapur and Solapur in Maharashtra.
Jharsuguda in Odisha; Ludhiana in Punjab; Kishangarh, Bikaner and Kota in Rajasthan; Thanjavore in Tamil Nadu, apart from Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly, Faizabad, Kanpur, Meerut, Moradabad and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh are the other cities where airports are expected to come up.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
