Made in India civil aircraft to take off in two years

Visakhapatnam: A fully indigenously manufactured civil aircraft will take to the skies within the next two years, civil aviation minister K Ram Mohan Naidu announced at the 31st CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

Addressing a special plenary session on ‘The Next Step for Indian Aviation: Connectivity, Capacity, Competitiveness’, the minister said India’s civil aviation sector had emerged as a global model, registering significant growth in infrastructure and passenger traffic.

He said the number of airports in the country had increased from 74 in 2014 to 166 at present. The UDAN scheme had made air travel accessible to ordinary people, taking annual passenger traffic to 25 crore. Under the second phase of UDAN, launched with an allocation of Rs 30,000 crore, the government plans to develop another 100 airports and 200 modern heliports by 2036.

Highlighting technology-driven improvements, he said the introduction of Digi Yatra had reduced passenger entry time at airports from 90 seconds to just 20 seconds.

Rammohan Naidu praised Andhra Pradesh for its rapid progress in aviation. He described the completion of Bhogapuram International Airport six months ahead of schedule as a significant achievement.

He said the state Government was also working towards establishing an Aerospace and Defence City near Lepakshi in Anantapur district. Plans were being prepared to introduce seaplane services connecting Prakasam barrage, Srisailam and Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad.

The discussion featured aviation industry representatives Vaibhav Vohra, Jodhbir Singh Sachdeva, Anubhav Kumar and Dr Abhay Pashilkar, along with UNEP senior advisor Sudhir Perla. Participants deliberated on expanding air connectivity, strengthening airport and airline capacity, and enhancing India’s global competitiveness.

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