The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated the New International Terminal Building, Thiruvananthapuram Airport in Kerala today. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s speech on the occasion: 

“I am delighted to be here this morning in this beautiful gateway to the city of Thiruvananthapuram and the State of Kerala. I compliment the Airports Authority of India for the commitment with which they have been building such impressive infrastructure in our airports. 

At one time, the aviation sector was looked upon as being relevant only for the affluent sections of our population. But in recent years the thinking has changed and it is well recognized that this sector is vital for the development of our trade, industry and tourism, which in turn create employment opportunities for all sections of our people. With the growth of low cost air travel, the airlines are now giving strong competition to the railways and many passengers who earlier used to travel only by trains today frequently use air flights. 

The government fully understands the importance of the civil aviation sector to the Indian economy particularly as it gets more and more integrated into the global economy. We have formulated various policies to give a boost to this important sector of our economy. 

Our policy on airport infrastructure aims to increase airport capacity to stay ahead of demand and to garner the maximum share of traffic in the region. We wish to make our airport facilities user friendly and achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. We also seek to ensure the safety and security of airport operations and develop multi-modal transport linkages. 

The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India have commenced the development and modernization of existing airports on a mission mode to create world class air infrastructure in our country. The roadmap already laid down in this regard is being implemented at a fast pace. Airports at Delhi and Mumbai have been restructured and are being modernized through joint ventures under the new concept of private-public partnership model. Two new green field airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore have been developed and have become operational through the joint venture route.

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