Budget 2023: Presenting the Union Budget 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will set up 50 additional Airports, Heliports, Aerodromes in India. "50 additional airports, helipads, water aero drones, advanced landing grounds will be revived to improve regional air connectivity", said FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Over the past few years, the government has been taking various initiatives, especially the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, to boost the regional air connectivity.


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"Fifty additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes and advance landing grounds will be revived for improving regional air connectivity," Sitharaman said in her Budget speech. Besides, she said that 100 critical transport infrastructure projects, for last and first mile connectivity for ports, coal, steel, fertiliser, and food grains sectors have been identified.


"They will be taken up on priority with investment of Rs 75,000 crore, including Rs 15,000 crore from private sources," she added. UDAN flights have transported almost close to 1.15 crore people in the last six years.


In her first address to the joint sitting of Parliament on Tuesday, President Droupadi Murmu said the country's aviation sector is growing rapidly. "Up to 2014, the number of airports in the country was 74, it has now increased to 147. Today India has become the third-largest aviation market in the world. The UDAN Yojana has played an important role in this regard," she had said.


This year's Budget holds much significance as the country is scheduled to have the next Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024. As per established tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with ministers of state Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad and Finance Secretary T V Somanathan called on President Droupadi Murmu.


This is the fifth budget presentation by Sitharaman. The budget session of the Parliament began on Tuesday with President's address, subsequently tabling the Economic Survey for 2022-23. The formal exercise to prepare the annual Budget for the next financial year (2023-24) commenced on October 10.


The Economic Survey, tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, noted India's GDP is expected to grow in the range of 6 to 6.8 per cent in the coming financial year 2023-24. This is in comparison to the estimated 7 per cent this fiscal and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22.


With agencies inputs