Under the Civil Aviation Ministry’s vision of increasing the ‘width and depth of air penetration,’ Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the ministry has drawn up plans to construct over 200 airports over the next five-six years. As per reports, Scindia has stated that over the past 67 years of independence the country saw only 74 new airports being built while in the last 8.5 years it has been increased to 147 under the Prime Minister. “We are just one short of doubling that number. The 148th airport will be also completed this month itself which means that what India took 66-67 years to build and under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that has been done in a period of nine years”, he said. Stressing that the air connectivity in the country cannot be focused only by expanding international routes, he said air connectivity should be expanded to tier-II and III cities. The minister said under the Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme they have introduced a small aircraft scheme last year which will be only sub-20 seater aircraft. These are sub-20 seater aircraft so that the penetration is down to the grassroots level. Such aircraft were currently being operated in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, NorthEastern States and advanced landing grounds have been activated on the border of Arunachal Pradesh so that there is 100 per cent penetration.