Indigenous civil aircraft to take to the skies in two years: Rammohan Naidu

India will have its own indigenously manufactured civil aircraft within the next two years, Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said here on Thursday.

Addressing a plenary session on ‘The Next Step for Indian Aviation: Connectivity, Capacity, Competitiveness’ at the 31st CII Partnership Summit, he said the number of airports in the country had increased from 74 in 2014 to 166. The UDAN scheme had made air travel accessible to the common man, taking annual passenger traffic to 250 million, he said.

With an allocation of ₹30,000 crore for the second phase of UDAN, the government plans to develop 100 additional airports and 200 modern heliports by 2036. The introduction of Digi Yatra had reduced passenger entry time at airports from 90 seconds to 20 seconds, he added.

Praising Andhra Pradesh’s progress in the aviation sector under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Union Minister said Bhogapuram International Airport had been completed six months ahead of schedule. He also referred to plans to establish an Aerospace and Defence City near Lepakshi in Anantapur district and to introduce seaplane services connecting Prakasam Barrage, Srisailam and Hussain Sagar in Hyderabad.

Calling for greater private investment in the sector, he identified aircraft component manufacturing, maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), drones and electric air taxis as promising areas.

Vaibhav Vohra of Continental Carriers, Jodhbir Singh Sachdeva of KPMG, Anubhav Kumar of Boeing India and South Asia, Dr. Abhay Pashilkar of CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories, and Sudhir Perla, Senior Advisor, UNEP, participated in the discussions. The deliberations focused on expanding air connectivity, increasing airport and airline capacity, and strengthening India’s competitiveness in the global aviation sector.