Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh, announced that the first phase of the Ayodhya International Airport would be completed by December 15, which is a month before the scheduled opening of the Ram Temple. The announcement was made following Yogi's inspection of the construction progress at Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram International Airport, where he was accompanied by Jyotiraditya Scindia, Civil Aviation Minister and Union Minister of V K Singh (retd), State for Civil Aviation General. A review meeting was also conducted by the Chief Minister and the Union ministers with officials involved in the construction of the airport. Yogi Adityanath expressed to reporters that, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision, the holy city of Lord Shri Ram is transforming into a new Ayodhya for new India. The chief minister stated that there had been a very small airstrip in Ayodhya measuring only 178 acre earlier. He added that it had now been designed as a large international airport. The chief minister further mentioned that the construction work of the new airport was underway with urgency, undertaken by the Airports Authority of India after the state government provided 821 acre of land. The chief minister stated that the people would receive the infrastructure necessary for the development of Ayodhya. He added that the government was making serious efforts to restore the city's glory. Scindia mentioned that there had been an attempt to reflect the cultural potential of the airport in Ayodhya. He informed the reporters that, in the first phase, the airport would be spread across 65,000 square feet with a capacity to handle two to three flights every hour. He mentioned that work was ongoing to build a 2,200-meter-long runway, allowing Boeing 737 and Airbus 319 and 320 to land at this airport. Initially, there was an airport apron for eight aircraft. Scindia also stated that soon approval from the Cabinet would be sought for the second phase. He said, In the second phase, as already mentioned by the chief minister (Adityanath), the length of the runway will be increased from 2,200 metres to 3,700 metres. In other words, he explained that the length of the runway would be around four kilometres so that international aircraft like Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 could land in Ayodhya.