17 airstrips cleared for private sector investments in Uttar Pradesh.

Giving a major boost to the state civil aviation sector, the Uttar Pradesh government has thrown open 17 airports and airstrips for private sector investment.

Under the blueprint, these airstrips along with hangars could now be used by the private companies to operate aviation training institutes, aero sports centres, aviation MRO (maintenance repair and overhaul) facilities, etc.

The airstrips are located in Aligarh, Etawah, Kanpur Dehat, Farrukhabad, Shravasti, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpur, Ghazipur, Kheri, Chitrakoot, Sonbhadra, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Meerut, Moradabad, and Ayodhya districts.

The state Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently ratified a proposal to this effect.

The fresh policy mandates usage of a minimum 1,000 sq mt and 200 sq mt of area for setting up of aviation training institutes (flight training organisation) and MRO units, respectively. Similarly, 50 sq mt of area would be allocated on a temporary basis for conducting the aero sports activities by private parties.

“If additional land is required, the same would be provided depending upon the available land bank and the prevailing land lease rental on a case-to-case basis by the civil aviation department,” a senior UP government official said.

Meanwhile, the UP government is bullish on the aviation sector after tourist inflow surged by 27 per cent in the past five years. During this period, the state witnessed the arrival of nearly 1.25 billion domestic and 12.5 million foreign backpackers.

In this context, both business and leisure air travel is expected to give a fillip to the socioeconomic landscape by attracting investment, ramping up vital infra and creating jobs.

While UP already has three international airports in Lucknow, Varanasi, and

Kushinagar, two more international airports are under construction in Ayodhya and Jewar (Noida). As such, UP would become the first state in

India to boast of five international airports.

BS