Civil Aviation Ministry will receive an increased budgetary allocation of Rs 6,602.86 crore in the next financial year, with a significant chunk kept aside for purchase of “two new aircraft” to be used for VVIP flights.
The allocation is nearly three times higher than the amount of Rs 2,710.31 crore allocated to the ministry for this fiscal.
In the Budget for 2018-19 presented on Thursday, an allocation of Rs 6,602.86 crore has been made for the ministry.
Out of the total amount, Rs 4,469.50 crore would be for “purchase of two new aircraft for special extra section flight operations”, as per a Budget document.
The two new planes — Boeing 777-300 ER — would be used for VVIP operations.
Besides, the allocation for regional air connectivity scheme or UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) has been steeply increased to Rs 1,014.09 crore for the next fiscal. The same was at Rs 200.11 crore for the current financial year (2017-18).
Debt-laden Air India, for which the Government has started the process of disinvestment, would receive a budgetary support of Rs 650 crore under the turnaround plan in 2018-19. This is a significant decline from Rs 1,800 crore allocated for the current fiscal.
As per the Budget document, an amount of Rs 506 crore is to come for Air India in the next fiscal by way of IEBR (Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources). IEBR refers to a company raising funds through internal resources and external borrowings.