Cabinet takes up airports' expansion

In a recent move to boost air connectivity across the country, the Union Cabinet is all set to give go-ahead to the expansion of Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Tirupati airports matching global standards. In this connection, it likely to grant international status to Vijaywada airport as the move follows the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh after which the capital Hyderabad as well as the states international airport situated in the city were transferred to the new state of Telangana. As per the government’s ambitious move named as Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) being implemented by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the cabinet is also moving ahead for upgrading the Hyderabad and Puducherry airports which are going to facilitate the flagship scheme. In this connection, SpiceJet has mooted operating a direct flight connecting Puducherry and Bengaluru if some additional concessions are provided to the aviation company.