New Delhi, March 22 (PTI) BJP member Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Tuesday made a strong case for developing 30-40 greenfield airports in the country to cater to the requirement of ever increasing number of air passengers.

Participating in the discussion on demands for grants for the Civil Aviation Ministry in the Lok Sabha, he said that upgrading existing airports and using defence enclaves for civil aviation "is not the future."

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Former Civil Aviation Minister Rudy said the capacity of existing airports or brown field airports cannot be increased beyond a point even after incurring huge expenditure.

Similarly, the airports at defence enclaves cannot be upgraded as air force planes do not need CAT-3 or night landing facilities which are essential for operating large civilian aircraft.

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He asked the government to expedite development of a new airport at Patna and focus on "developing 25, 30 or 40 greenfield airports in the country."

Rudy said that the first revolution in the civilian aviation sector was started by the father of current Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Madhavrao Scindia who opened the sector by allowing private airlines.

Thereafter, low cost airlines revolutionised this sector in 2003 when Atal Bihari Vajyapee was Prime Minister.

Now, he said, it was time to develop large airports and follow the 'hub and spoke' model to take civil aviation to newer heights.

He also asked the government to devise a policy to encourage aerosports which has huge potential.

Sangeeta Azad (BSP) urged the government to expedite development of an airport at Azamgarh.

NCP member Sunil Tatkare said that the government should expand Pune airport to enable landing of large aircraft.

Dushyant Singh (BJP) said that the government should modernise the airports to meet the requirement of increasing number of passengers.

S T Hasan (SP) demanded that an international airport be set up in Moradabad to encourage exports.

The others who spoke include M P Abdussamad Samadani (IUML) and Hasnain Masoodi (JKNC).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)