LUCKNOW: India’a annual air
passenger handling capacity
will rise by over 6 crore over the next 1-2 months after
PM Modi
on Sunday inaugurated airport projects worth Rs 9,800 crore, from UP’s Azamgarh, reports Saurabh Sinha. These include new and expanded terminals at 12 places, including Delhi, Pune, Kolhapur, Lucknow, Gwalior and Azamgarh. He also laid the foundation stones for new terminal buildings for Kadapa, Hubballi and Belagavi airports. Airports across India have a capacity to handle 48 crore flyers annually, and the expansion will increase it by 12.5%.
Now, projects initiated are completed too: PM
“Inauguration of these airports, highways and railway lines today should not be seen through the prism of elections. This is my journey of development that aims to see India as a developed nation by 2047. Earlier, only announcements used to be made and forgotten. People were bluffed earlier. Aaj desh ne dekh liya Modi doosri mitti ka insaan hai. Whatever project is initiated now, is completed now”, PM said.
Airports across country have a capacity to handle 48 crore passengers annually, and expansion at the dozen airports will increase it by 12.5%. PM spoke about speed at which development is taking place. The Gwalior terminal, for instance, was built in a record 16 months. “Five places in UP that have got new terminals today, including Aligarh, Moradabad, Shravasti and Azamgarh were once considered small and backward towns. Now these places will get connected by flights,” Modi said.
Pune, Kolhapur, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Delhi, Lucknow, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Moradabad, Shravasti and Adampur airports have got new terminals. These terminals are equipped with passenger facilities like check-in counters, aerobridges, baggage conveyors and concessionaire area.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) has also undertaken development of three new terminal buildings at Kadapa, Hubballi and Belagavi airports at a cost of Rs 908 crore. Once completed, the combined passenger handling capacity of these airports will increase to 95 lakh passengers per annum.
Projects launched on Sunday join the list of aviation infra that has already been added this fiscal.