India is significantly expanding its airport infrastructure, with plans to add 100 new airports over the next decade and a projected six-fold increase in air traffic by 2040, driven by the UDAN scheme and growing demand.

India is significantly expanding its airport infrastructure, with plans to add 100 new airports over the next decade and a projected six-fold increase in air traffic by 2040, driven by the UDAN scheme and growing demand.

India is significantly expanding its airport infrastructure, with plans to add 100 new airports over the next decade and a projected six-fold increase in air traffic by 2040, driven by the UDAN scheme and growing demand.

"There were 74 airports in 2014, but today we can proudly say that India's map features 166 airports," said Union Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu on Tuesday while addressing the audience at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPIA) in Ahmedabad.

The 166 airports however, according to the minister, are not enough to sustain India’s air traffic. "We plan to spend approximately ₹30,000 crore over the next 10 years to build 100 new airports," he said, while talking about the Union government’s regional connectivity scheme called UDAN, which was approved in March this year. It is being implemented for a period of 10 years, from FY 2026-27 to FY 2035-36, with a total outlay of ₹28,840 crore and budgetary support from the government.

Why the ₹28,840 crore total outlay?

Minister Naidu said that civil aviation is the fastest-growing sector in the country. He said that the government has completed work on a new airport or a new terminal roughly every 40 days. He added that public demand is no longer just for a railway station or a train stop in their own towns but for an airport.

According to the minister, the public demand is not only from major cities but also comes from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, Himalayan regions, remote areas, and Lakshadweep and the Andaman Islands. "We are listening to it, formulating policies accordingly, and moving forward," he said.

Last month, GMR Airports Limited announced that it was planning to expand its New Delhi and Hyderabad airports. The group is planning to spend approximately ₹19,400 crore for the two projects. There are also discussions for a new airport in Nagpur.

It is understood that these current developments are in accordance with the growing demand from India’s civil aviation market. As per government estimates in ‘Vision 2040,’ published by the civil aviation ministry, the total air traffic, including domestic and international, is projected to grow six-fold to around 1.1 billion passengers over the next 14 years.

The UDAN scheme aims to expand both regional and international air connectivity by increasing the number of airports and overall airport infrastructure across the country.

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