40 more cities to feature on India's air map: Aviation minister Praful Patel
18 Sep 2007
The Ministry of Civil Aviation is planning to start flights connecting about 120 cities in the country, union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel has said.
He was inaugurating the new domestic arrival terminal 1B at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) at Mumbai on Monday 17 September.
He said the new routes would be announced in near future. At present, flights are operated from 81 cities in India.
Patel said the new airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad will be complete by March next year.
Once the proposed airports at Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad come up by 2011-12, he said the centre would open up new routes to connect Latur, Nanded, Amravati and Akola in Maharashtra with Mumbai.
The Indian civil aviation sector will grow to $120 billion within ten years, creating three million jobs, Patel said.