Budget 2025: Airports to be built in the northeast and mountainous areas; 10 percent cut in aviation sector budget

New Delhi|Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made many big announcements in the budget. While announcing the expansion of the scope of the UDAN scheme in the budget, it has been said that airports will be built up to the hilly and north-eastern areas. But the budget of the Civil Aviation Ministry has been cut. The Union Finance Minister has now increased the budget of the Civil Aviation Ministry from Rs 2,658.68 crore to Rs 2,400.31 crore. A provision of Rs 800 crore to Rs 540 crore has been made for the flight as compared to the previous budget.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that 120 new destinations will be added to the UDAN scheme. She said the UDAN scheme has enabled the air travel aspirations of 1.5 crore middle class people to be fulfilled.

She said that now a revised UDAN scheme will be launched. This will enable regional links to be extended to 120 new destinations. This will enable four crore passengers to be added over the next 10 years. Under this scheme, helipads and small airports will be built in hilly, aspirational and north-eastern region districts.

According to the budget documents, the UDAN scheme provided budget for revival of airports and commencement of RCS routes, North-East connectivity. It said a new plan has also been prepared to improve connectivity, provide air connectivity and aviation infrastructure in the North-Eastern region.

Also in the budget, it has been increased to Rs 330 crore and Rs 95 crore for DGCA and BCAS respectively. Whereas for Tier 2 and 3 cities airports, Rs 142.75 crore has been given to Airports Authority of India (AAI) and AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Limited (AAICLAS) for customs cost recovery. Apart from this, Air India Asset Holding Limited will get a slightly higher allocation of Rs 1,025.51 crore as compared to Rs 1,017.67 crore in the current financial year.