15 new greenfield airports to be developed: Minister

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The government said Tuesday it has granted in principle approval for setting up of 15 greenfield airports.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma told the Rajya Sabha: "Government of India (GoI) has granted in principle approval for setting up 15 greenfield airports in the country."

"Timeline for construction of airport projects depends upon many factors such as

land acquisition, availability of mandatory clearances, financial closure by the

respective promoter."

The minister listed out Mopa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg as among the airports that will be developed as greenfield facilities.

Currently, India has 132 airports, of which the Airports Authority of

India (AAI) runs 46 domestic airports and 15 international airports. There are 4

Joint Venture (jv) airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad developed

under the PPP mode with private sector companies.

Of the remaining, 31 airports are not operational and the rest are civil enclaves in defence airports or customs airports. There are also six airports run by the state governments or union territories.