Mission 2024: Develop 100 new airports

New Delhi: The government will build 100 new airports by 2024 to improve regional connectivity and corporatise a major port that will be later listed, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. “It is expected that the air fleet number shall go up from the present 600 to 1,200 during this time. I propose to provide about Rs 1.70 lakh crore for transport infrastructure in 2020-21,” she said.

India currently has 100 operational airports and have a total of 450 airstrips in the country. About 350 of them are not operational.

Analysts said the government’s plan to make 100 airports operational in the next four years seems ambitious, and implementation would be the key. “A good plan but where is the money coming from for these projects… Also, upgrading 100 airports in the next four years seems a little aggressive and would be difficult to achieve,” said Mark Martin, CEO and co-founder at Martin Consultancy.


The government has allocated Rs 465 crore under the Regional Connectivity Scheme. Money has been allocated for revival of 50 airports and viability gap funding for Northeast connectivity.