New Delhi: In a bid to improve the aviation infrastructure in the country, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday unveiled a '16-pointer 100-day agenda' on Thursday.
Among the 16 points, four are on infrastructure, eight on policy targets and four on reforms initiative.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the government will upgrade or develop four new airports — Kushinagar, Dehradun, Agartala and Jewar.
"First would be the airport in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh. It will have the capacity for the successful landing of Airbus 321 and Boeing 737 flights and it is ready for the inauguration. Kushinagar will become the focal point of the Buddhist circuit and it is being constructed at the cost of Rs 255 crore," he said.
The civil aviation minister said that a new terminal building will come up at Dehradun airport, Uttarakhand and Rs 457 crore will be invested for its construction. The minister further said the airport will be able to facilitate 1,800 people after the proposed expansion. At present, the airport can handle 250 passengers on an hourly basis.
"The third one is Agartala airport where Rs 490 crore is being invested. The present capacity of the terminal is 500 passengers per hour and after building a new terminal, the airport will be able to handle 1,200 passengers on an hourly basis," he added.
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"The fourth one is coming up in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh where Rs 30,000 crore will be invested. In Phase-I, Rs. 9,000 crore will be invested and it will have the capacity to handle 1.2 crore passengers per year and by Phase-4 it will have the capacity to handle 7 crore passengers," he added.
The minister also announced that six heliports would be developed in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN and 50 new routes will be launched in the next 100 days.
Under the 100-day initiative, 30 new routes are proposed to be launched by the first week of October. Out of the 30 new routes, Alliance Air will launch six new routes, IndiGo will launch four new routes each and Big Charter and StarAir will launch eight new routes each.
Speaking on the new policy for Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO), Scindia said the aviation ministry is trying to attract private investment. "AAI has come out with a new policy and identified eight airports where we can provide the MRO facilities. The eight airports are Begumpet, Bhopal, Chennai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Juhu, Kolkata and Chennai."
Scindia said the upgraded version of the grievance portal AirSewa 3.0 which will be launched on September 30 and added that "giving refunds to the passengers will not be the responsibility of travel agents alone and now the airlines will also (held) be responsible."
