NEW DELHI: Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India, on Tuesday, February 23, announced that Uttar Pradesh has got its third international airport in Kushinagar. The minister added that it got the necessary clearances from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and that the move will boost tourism in the region.
The Kushinagar airport is located around several Buddhist cultural sites like Sravasti, Kapilavastu and Lumbini. The other two international airports in the state are Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, and Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi. Suresh Khanna, Minister of Finance, Government of Uttar Pradesh, announced a sum of Rs 101 crore for the construction of the upcoming airport in Ayodhya, which is named Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram Airport.
Last year, upgrade of Kushinagar airport to an international one was given the go ahead by the central government. It is itself a Buddhist cultural site and this development will improve connectivity to the region and also provide wider choice of competitive cost to the air-travellers, the state government said.