The government of India has accorded in-principle approval for setting up 21 greenfield airports across the country. Ten such airports have been operationalised so far, the latest being the Manohar International Airport at Mopa, Goa, which was inaugurated on December 11 this year, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Lt Gen (Retd) V K Singh told the Rajya Sabha. Since 2018, seven airports - Pakyong (Sikkim), Kannur (Kerela), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh), Orvakal (Andhra Pradesh) and Donyi Polo (Arunachal Pradesh) - have been operationalised apart from Manohar International Airport.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has incurred a cost of Rs 25.04 billion in 2017-18, Rs 42.97 billion in 2018-19, Rs 47.13 billion in 2019-20, Rs 43.50 billion in 2020-21 and Rs 37.24 billion in 2021-22 for the construction of these airports.
During the pre-Covid period, in the year 2018-19, the passenger footfall at airports across the country increased by 11.6% as compared to the previous year, 2017-18. The number of passengers decreased during the pandemic. Post-Covid, in the year 2021-22 the trend showed an increase of 63.7% over 2020-21, the minister said.
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