The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport developers have targeted a capital outlay of ₹91,000 crore in the sector over the next five years, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The outlay will be towards expansion and modification of existing terminals, setting up of new terminals and strengthening of runways, among other activities.

Under the Greenfield Airports Policy, 2008, the Government of India has so far, accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 21 greenfield airports across the country. The new airports will come up at 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, Bhogapuram and Oravakal in Andhra Pradesh; Durgapur in West Bengal; Pakyong in Sikkim; Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh.

Out of these, eight airports — Durgapur, Shirdi, Sindhudurg, Pakyong, Kannur, Kalaburagi, Oravakal and Kushinagar — have been operationalised.

In Bihar, the AAI had projected a land requirement of 108 acres for the development of a Civil Enclave at Bihta Airport. While the land was handed over, an additional land requirement of 191.5 acres for runway extension and installation of approach light and eight acres for city side development to accommodate wide-bodied aircrafts for international operations at the airport is required. The additional land is yet to be handed over. “In case of non availability of land, the State government needs to identify an alternate site for construction of a greenfield airport meeting the requirements for operation of international flights,” Scindia said.

Jewar airport

In case of Jewar, the Uttar Pradesh government has appointed the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) as the implementing agency for the project under public private partnership mode. Zurich Airport International AG has been awarded the project.

Scindia said the UP government has informed that the acquisition and possession of 1,334 hectares of land for phase-I of the project – estimated to come up at a cost of ₹8,914 crore — has been completed. Initial year traffic is pegged at four million passengers per annum against an initial capacity of 12 million passenger per annum. The scheduled completion date of airport is September 29, 2024.

Krishi Udan

The Union Minister further added that the Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0 was announced on October 27 last year with a focus on transporting perishable food products from the hilly areas, northeastern States and tribal areas. At present, 29 States have been covered under the scheme, which include all the airports in the north-east.

“The main objective of the Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0 is to increase the share of air carriage in the modal mix for transportation of agri-produce,” the response by the minister said.