new Delhi. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has democratized the civil aviation sector. He claimed that the Indian civil aviation sector is once again rising rapidly after facing the crisis of economic loss during the period of COVID. Scindia said the most important aspect of the airline and airport is last mile connectivity and the government under the leadership of Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/MTUrPcR1VY
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2021
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has democratized the civil aviation sector in the last seven years. He said that air travel, which was earlier limited to a select few, has now been opened to all.
Responding to the discussion on Demands for Grants under the control of Ministry of Civil Aviation for the year 2022-23, Jyotiraditya Scindia claimed that earlier only big cities used to have airports, but now this scenario has completely changed and Now airports have started in many small cities of the country and are being constructed in many cities. He told in the Lok Sabha that till 2014 there were only 74 airports in the country, but in the last 7 years, the Modi government has worked to build 66 new airports and thus currently 140 airports are functioning across the country. He said that the government wants to take the number of this airport to 220 by the year 2025.
Responding to the allegations of disinvestment made by the opposition parties, Scindia said that the six airports mentioned by the MPs have not been disinvested, but have been given to the private sector on the basis of lease arrangement, so that the government will get 64 percent more amount. He told the House that the Airport Authority of India would have earned Rs 550 crore from these six airports, but after leasing it out, it would get Rs 904 crore per annum. He said that this amount would be used for the development of airports only in the states connected to that airport. He also informed that the Airport Authority of India had spent Rs 2,300 crore on these six airports, but after leasing out, Rs 2322 crore has already arrived in the account of the Government of India.
Scindia said that in the coming summer, the government is going to start 135 domestic and 15 new global flights. He told the House that two new airlines – Jet and Akash are going to start in the country. He also talked about changing DGCA to EGCA.
Giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ‘Operation Ganga’ carried out to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine to the country safely, Scindia said that such a campaign could have been successfully run by a Prime Minister like Narendra Modi. He said that apart from Indian Air Force, Air India, Indigo, Go Air and Spice Jet, 90 aircraft of many other airlines were involved in this operation and this operation was carried out in five neighboring countries of Ukraine.
He claimed that the Indian civil aviation sector suffered a loss of $3 billion during the COVID crisis, claiming that the sector is now on the path of recovery. He said that by investing Rs 100 in this sector, the economy as a whole gets a profit of Rs 310. Directly one gets 6.1 times the employment indirectly. Referring to the VAT on the fuel of the aircraft – ATF, Scindia said that on his request, 12 states and union territories of the country have reduced it to between 1 to 4 percent, 12 states have already reduced it. But in 12 states and union territories of the country including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, its rate is still more than 20 percent which needs to be reduced.
He told the House that the government and the private sector together are going to invest an amount of more than Rs 1 lakh crore in the next 2-3 years for the expansion of civil aviation sector in the country.
—AnyTV News
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