Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said 200-220 more airports, heliports and water aerodromes will be built in the country in the next five years. He made the statement to the media in New Delhi while highlighting the work done by the aviation sector in the last 9 years of the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
"In the next five years, India will have 200-220 more airports, heliports and water aerodromes, said the Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya at a press conference, reported news agency ANI.
He also highlighted that in the last 9 years 148 airports have been opened across the country, which is almost double than what was built in the last 68 years.
Laying emphasis on how the northeast part of the country has now got eight more airports, Scindia said, "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."
Meanwhile, on Monday, June 5, the Civil Aviation Minister while addressing a meeting of the Airlines Advisory Group had expressed concerns over the "rising airfares" on certain routes following the grounding of Go First. He urged airline operators to keep the fares reasonable. He however, added that airlines would have to "self-monitor" the issue.
The government has been receiving numerous complaints regarding skyrocketing air fares after GoFirst shut down, a member who attended the meeting said to ANI. Tourist hotspot sector like Delhi - Leh and Srinagar have witnessed a Delhi return airfares touching around Rs 50,000.
The minister issued instructions during a meeting with Airlines Advisory Group to discuss the increase in airfares in the past few weeks.
The airlines airfare is unregulated and is usually determined by the market forces (the demand and supply).