New Delhi, Sep 4 (FN Agency) Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Saturday that he was trying to develop domestic air transport service to make it affordable for the ordinary citizens under the Udan Yojana launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at an awards distribution function organised by daily Lokmat here this evening, he said that as per PM Modi’s insistence on making air travel affordable for ordinary citizens, he was trying to further develop the domestic air travel. He further said that at present total 20 crore people in the country travel by air per year but he was trying to raise this number to 40 crore passengers per year by the year 2030. As a part of this attempt, he was trying to improve air connectivity with towns like Kolhapur, Chipi in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra and Darbhanga in Bihar with the country’s main cities, the Minister said and informed that there is a plan to put Pune city on international air travel map.
Scindia made an announcement on the occasion that a new air service terminal would be opened in Kolhapur by March next year and asked to state Higher & Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, who was present on this occasion, to make available more 64 acre land for starting air cargo service from here. Apart from Patil, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj (Kolhapur), MP Dhananjay Mahadik, Samarjeet Ghatge, chairman of Lokmat Editorial Board Vijay Darda, Lokmat editor Vijay Baviskar, resident editor Vasantrao Bhosale and others were present for the function. In the function, 52 personalities were presented with Icon awards in recognition of their contribution to various fields.