To give wings to civil aviation, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is eyeing investment to the tune of nearly Rs 16,000 crore in the sector.
The proposed investment will be utilised for the development and upgradation of airstrips and also towards related activities viz. aviation training, aircraft maintenance, aero-sports etc.
UP is blessed with a resilient aviation infra including maximum number of operational domestic and international airports as well as airstrips in India.
Now, the state is focussing on facilitating optimum utilisation of such infrastructure and attracting private investment in the domain with the help of the Airstrip Policy of the Government of Uttar Pradesh 2023.
In addition to the 14 state-owned airstrips identified for immediate development, UP is looking to operationalise 225 routes under the flagship Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS).
UP aims at a phase-wise upgradation of airstrips and infrastructure. Six airstrips including Aligarh, Azamgarh, Chitrakoot, Shravasti, Moradabad and Sonbhadra will be upgraded under the RCS.
Earlier, the Yogi government allocated a budget of almost Rs 28,000 crore in the current financial year 2024-25 for the development of civil aviation infra spanning modernisation of airstrips, land acquisition etc.
UP saw a 20 percent uptick in the number of flyers in 2023-24 which indicted a growing leisure and business tourism in the state.
Moreover, the government is promoting helicopter taxis in major tourist hotspots under the public private partnership (PPP) mode.
In recent years, UP has emerged as the most favoured tourist destination logging a staggering 50 percent jump in tourist inflow to 480 million in 2023 over 2022.
This is expected to boost the state’s ambitious goal of becoming India’s fist $trillion economy in near future.