India's UDAN scheme to result in airport capacity expanded by more than five times

India's Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley, in the Budget 2018/2019, stated (01-Feb-2018) the regional connectivity scheme of UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) initiated by the Government in 2017/2018 shall connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads across the country. Operations have already started at 16 such airports. Airport Authority of India (AAI) has 124 airports. Mr Jaitley stated: "We propose to expand our airport capacity more than five times to handle a billion trips a year under a new initiative - NABH Nirman. Balance sheet of AAI shall be leveraged to raise more resources for funding this expansion". [more - original PR - I] [more - original PR - II] [more - original PR - III] [more - original PR - IV]