India to have 200-220 more airports, heliports in next 5 years: Scindia

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said that 200-220 more airports, heliports and water aerodromes will be built in the country over the next five years.

The union minister was addressing media persons in the national capital while highlighting the work done by the aviation sector in the last nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Scindia said, "Whatever the governments have done in the past 68 years, the Modi government has done it in the 9 years. The number has reached from 74 to 148. We aim to make in 200-220 in the next five years including heliports and water aerodromes".

He added that eight airports have been built in the northeast part of the country. "There were some states in the region where there were no airports but today, Arunachal Pradesh has three new airports, Sikkim also has an airport now," Scindia said.

The minister spoke on the metro capacity, "We currently have six large metros (Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata). The capacity of these metros is 22 crores. The target is to double the capacity of these six metros, including Jevar and Navi Mumbai, in the next eight years".

Praising the government, Scindia said, "Be in the Covid-19 pandemic or the 'Operation Ganga' (Carried out to bring back the Indian students stuck in Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war), the civil aviation ministry had a major role to play in bringing back our civilians to India".

Scindia's press conference on the completion of nine years of the Modi government was held under the 'Mega Jan-Sampark Abhiyan' in which the ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party will visit the capitals of each State and show the report card of the work done in the last nine years.