On the day the economic survey was tabled and a day before the Union budget was presented, the questions for the Ministry of Civil Aviation were scheduled to be answered in Rajya Sabha – the upper house of Parliament. On a question asked by Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress President, Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and representing Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha since 2020, Sh. Murildhar Mohol – Minister of State for Civil Aviation shared the details of the spend on Repair and Maintenance done by Airports Authority of India (AAI).
AAI spent INR 795.72 crore rupees in FY23-24 on Repair and Maintenance of airports which are operated by it. This includes civil enclaves where the airport is owned and operated by one of the arms of the armed forces, but the civil terminal is maintained and operated by the AAI. However, this does not include the privately run airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi amongst others where AAI has not undertaken any Repair and Maintenance work. This is the highest amount spent by the state owned Airports Authority of India amongst the five years for which the data is shared. This covers 121 airports in the country. Overall there are 150+ airports which are operational, some of which are managed by state governments, private entities amongst others.
Least money spent on these airports
As many as 20 airports saw no expenditure on Repair and Maintenance in the last financial year. These 20 are Asansol, Chakulia, Daparizo, Deesa, Dhalbhumgharh, Donakonda, Jogbani, Kailashahar, Kamalpur, Khandwa, Khowai, Nadurgul, Panna, Raxual, Satna, Shella, Thanjavaur, Warangal, Turial and Muzaffarpur – most of which are non-operational or have limited connectivity.
Highest amount spent on Chennai and Kolkata
Highest amount on Repair and Maintenance (R&M) was spent on Chennai and Kolkata airports, the only two metro airports still operated by the AAI and also the largest with AAI. Chennai saw INR 107.26 crore spent on R&M while this amount was INR 97.7 crore for Kolkata.
The top 20 airports by spend, saw INR 520.51 crore of the total INR 795 crore being spent on R&M. These airports are Chennai, Kolkata, Patna, Goa – Dabolim, Coimbatore, Agartala, Calicut, Bhubaneshwar, Safdarjung, Srinagar, Amritsar, Raipur, Varanasi, Ranchi, Indore, Trichy, Bhopal, Hyderabad – Begumpet, Vadodara and Pune. Only two out of these, Safarjung and Hyderabad – Begumpet do not see scheduled commercial service.
Tail Note
Jabalpur which was in the news recently for collapse of canopy saw INR 3.57 crore being spent on R&M. Rajkot, which was also in the news for similar reasons, saw INR 2.19 crores being spent on R&M in the last financial year.
Question Details: Unstarred question number 29, answered on 22-July-2024
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