The centre has planned a Rs 91,000 crore investment for the development of existing and new airports in India, as several measures are being taken to boost the civil aviation sector of the country. The government has approved setting up 21 greenfield airports, eight out of which, including Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, are operational. The State Minister of Civil Aviation, VK Singh, said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had undertaken the development programme to spend Rs 25,000 crore in the next 4-5 years for airport expansion, modifying the existing terminals and the new terminals and strengthening the runways. Three airports in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, based on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, have undertaken the expansion plan to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore by 2025. Singh said that Rs 36,000 crore had been planned to invest in the development of new greenfield airports in the country under the PPP model. There are 13 airports operated by private firms under PPP mode, out of which eight belong to AAI, including Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram. Another five airports in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Kannur and Durgapur belong to their respective state governments. AAI has leased eight airports on a PPP basis for the operation, management and development on a long term basis. It gets revenue share from PPP mode at Delhi and Mumbai and Per Passenger Fee (PPF) at other six airports throughout the concession period. Under the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme, 393 airport routes have commenced connecting and 62 unserved or underserved airports, including six helicopters and two water aerodromes. Singh further said that over 2,17,000 flights had been operated under the Vande Bharat Mission, and more than 1.83 crore passengers have been facilitated. Image Source Also read: Adani Group pays Rs 2,440 cr to AAI for acquiring six airports