On Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha approved the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill 2021, despite opposition parties' protests over the Pegasus snooping issue. The bill aims to encourage the development of smaller airports by grouping them to make them more appealing to investors. This now clears the way for the bill to be signed into law. The Lok Sabha had approved it on July 29 and will now require President Ram Nath Kovind’s approval. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Civil Aviation Minister, introduced the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill 2021 on the House floor, proposing to change the definition of a major airport under the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority Act, 2008 (AERA Act). Scindia also listed many areas that have benefited from the Udaan, or regional connectivity scheme, launched by the central government. Several smaller cities, such as Darbhanga in Bihar, Belgaum and Hubli in Karnataka, Jharsuguda in Odisha, and Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh, which was previously missing from the map of civil aviation, have seen 110 flight movements from various parts of the country over the last one and a half years. Following that, the bill was referred to a parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism, and culture, which approved it with no changes. Poonam Verma, partner, J Sagar Associates told the media that the bill aims to support the government's plan to privatise smaller airports as part of its asset monetization programme, which was announced in the 2021-22 budget. The bill also promises to speed up the development of smaller airports and the UDAN regional air connectivity scheme by extending air connectivity to more remote areas. The amendment will allow AERA to regulate aeronautical service tariffs and other charges for not only major airports with annual passenger traffic exceeding 3.5 million but also for a group of airports. Image Source Also read: Lok Sabha passes AERA bill on airport privatisation