India needs Rs 3-4 lakh cr investment in aviation: Jayant Sinha

New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS) India would need Rs 3-4 lakh crore investment in aviation infrastructure in the next 10-15 years to reach 50 crore passenger trips, like China and the US, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said on Tuesday.

"We will need Rs 3-4 lakh crore investment in airports in the next 10-15 years. China today has got 50 crore passenger trips even if they have a high speed rail network. The US too has 90 crore passenger trips," said Sinha at the unveiling of the Economic Times Infra Visionaries Coffee Table Book.

Stating that investments in the aviation sector had increased ever since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, Sinha said in the fiscal year 2014-15, 10 crore passengers travelled in planes, which increased to 16 crore in 2015-16.

"We have grown 16-17 per cent in the last three years. In 2017, we grew 15.6 per cent. India will continue to grow 15-16 per cent. We are doubling the total growth and expect to have 20 crore passengers in 2018," said Sinha.

"We have a commercial flight order of 650. No other country has ordered more than India," said Sinha.

He said during the previous governments, only one airport was added because of which India in its 70 years of independence had only 75 airports.

However, the current government has started 30 airports in the current year under the UDAN initiative, he added.

Sinha added that from 75 to over 100 airports, the current government was very much focused on boosting the aviation sector.

Talking about the private air carriers, he said Indigo and Spicejet had ordered 50 planes each to connect to the tier 2 and 3 cities under the UDAN initiative.