India is making rapid progress in the field of aircraft manufacturing under the Modi government, the number of airports has doubled in the last seven years

The aviation sector of the country is progressing rapidly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Modi government has done many remarkable things for the construction of new aircraft and airports, modernization of old airports and connecting small cities of the country with new air routes. On Thursday (December 09, 2021), Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Lok Sabha that India has progressed rapidly in the direction of manufacturing aircraft and infrastructure.

Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited (TBAL), a joint venture between Boeing and Tata, is manufacturing the body of the Apache helicopter at its Hyderabad plant. The bodies of the AH-64 Apache helicopter, which originated from the TBAL plant, are being delivered to all of Boeing’s customers, including the US military and 15 other countries around the world. Airbus Defense and Space and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) have signed a contract to manufacture the ‘C-295’ transport aircraft.

This is a “major step” towards starting aviation and aeronautical projects in India. These aircraft will replace the Avro-748 aircraft of the Indian Air Force. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has taken very important steps in the field of aircraft manufacturing. HAL built the first civil wing aircraft Hindustan-228, which is the Indian version of the Dornier-228. Six civilian aircraft are being manufactured in the country with the funding of the Central Government.

To give a boost to regional transport, a 19-seater light transport aircraft is also being produced in the country. The ALH-Dhruv (Advanced Light Helicopter) is also being produced by HAL. The ‘UDAN’ scheme has been very successful in connecting the small towns of the country by air routes. So far 387 routes and 63 airports have been operationalized under this scheme, out of which 100 routes are from North-East alone. In 2014 only 6 airports were operational in Northeast, now their number has increased to 15.

The number of airports has almost doubled in the last seven years. The number of airports has increased from 74 in 2014 to 138 in 2021, with a plan to increase to 220 in the next four to five years. Under this, Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone of Noida International Airport in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh on November 25, 2021. It will be one of the largest airports in Asia. Earlier, on October 20, 2021, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the 589-acre international airport at Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh.