India targets 400 airports
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The number of airports in India will rise to about 400 in the next 10 years, the country’s Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, was reported saying in a Hindustan Times report. The country currently has 85 airports.
Patel made the comments on a visit to inaugurate two new air terminals and lay the foundation stone of a third. The new integrated terminals were at Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu) airports, while the foundation stone was laid for the new integrated terminal at Goa airport, the report said.
The trip follows visits to five other cities – Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Raipur and Ranchi - where Patel visited airport modernisation projects.
Speaking in Goa, Patel said the civil aviation sector would attract investments worth INR500 billion (US$10 billion)) in the next 10 years to fund the huge development plans.
“Now we have 500 passenger aeroplanes and nearly 85 operational airports, which is a welcome sign compared to 110 aircraft and 45 airports in 2004,” Patel was quoted saying, adding that the government’s policy of developing greenfield airports would continue in the future.
“The time of one airport for a region is gone. Now we have to look at a situation where one airport will have to compete with another for business,” Patel added.
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