ANDHRA PRADESH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday highlighted that the country’s operational airports have more than doubled from 74 in 2014 to 166 in 2026, making air travel accessible to ordinary citizens from smaller towns.
PM Modi inaugurated the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport at Bhogapuram.
Speaking at the airport’s inauguration, the Prime Minister emphasised that the country’s aviation sector has made exceptional progress.
“Over the past twelve years, the country’s aviation sector has made extraordinary progress. Until 2014, only 74 airports were operational in the country. Today, that number stands at 166. There was a time when air travel was limited to major cities. Under the NDA government, however, even ordinary people from smaller towns are now able to travel by air,” he said.
PM Modi hailed the ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik’ (UDAN) scheme as a key to enable people from poorer families to travel via aeroplane.
He noted that the second phase of the UDAN scheme has been launched with an expenditure of Rs 29 thousand crore.
“It is not just the number of airports that has increased over these twelve years. Thanks to our ‘UDAN’ scheme, people from even poor families are getting the opportunity to fly. Just recently, the government launched the second phase of the UDAN scheme, with an expenditure of Rs 29 thousand crore allocated for it,” he said.
