Guwahati: The construction of 21 Greenfield Airports around India has received “In-principle approval” from the Indian government.
According to a written reply to the Rajya Sabha by Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Lt Gen (Retd) VK Singh, ten of these airports have already been operationalized in the nation, with the most recent being the Manohar International Airport in Goa, which opened on December 11 of this year.
Since 2018, seven airports, Pakyong (Sikkim), Kannur (Kerela), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh), Orvakal (Andhra Pradesh) and Donyi Polo (Arunachal Pradesh) airports have been operationalized apart from the inauguration of Manohar International Airport at MoPA, Goa.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has incurred a cost of Rs 2504.38 crore in 2017-18, Rs. 4297.44 crore in 2018-19, Rs. 4713.49 crore in 2019-20, Rs. 4350 crore in 2020-21 and Rs. 3724.34 crores in 2021-22 for the construction of these airports.
The number of passengers passing through airports nationwide during the pre-covid period in the years 2018–19 climbed by 11.6 percent as compared to the year before, which was 2017–18. The epidemic era saw a decline in passenger foot traffic. However, post-covid, the trend shows an increase of 63.7 percent in 2021–2022 over 2020–2021, the Minister noted in his response.