New Delhi: New and existing airports will be developed with a projected capital expenditure of Rs 25,000 crores in next five years, said Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

General Singh said the Central government has taken several steps to meet the increasing demand in the aviation sector in the future. Airport Authority of India (AAI) has taken up development of new and existing airports with a projected capital expenditure of around Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years.

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are undertaking major expansion projects of around Rs 30,000 crore by 2025. Additionally, Rs 36,000 crores have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode, he said.

The Government of India has accorded 'in principle' approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield airports across the country. So far, eight Greenfield airports, namely, Sindhudurg and Shirdi in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been operationalized. /BI/