Kochi and Delhi airports are already carbon-neutral and out of the 110 airports under the Airports Authority of India, 93, 94 will be made carbon-neutral by 2024. He also informed that the ministry will achieve the aim of net zero emissions by 2030.
"One of the first things that I did when I took over as the aviation minister was to put a carbon mapping profile of our airports. Two of our airports, Delhi and Kochi, are already carbon-neutral and India will have 92-93 carbon-neutral airports by 2024," Scindia said at the All India Management Association national convention.
"Civil aviation is a highly visible sector, it's a very high-profile sector which attracts a lot of attention, but if you look at its contribution to greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.. it is very small... two percent of carbon emissions of the world," he said.
"Indian airports will not just achieve the net zero target by 2030, but will likely have over 400 million passengers by then. At present, we have over 200 million domestic and international passengers. But to handle the increase in passengers, the infrastructure on the ground has to be improved and increased.
"In the last eight years, the number of airports in the country has increased from 74 to 141 and this will grow up to 220 in the next five years," he said.
"The one thing that is scarce for every human being is time. No longer do we have the luxury of traveling for nine-10 hours, spending two days on a vacation and traveling the same number of hours back," Scindia added.
Scindia also asserted the need to set up an ecosystem in the aviation sector like the automobile. He also stressed that it should be not about airlines or airports but about flying and training organizations, cargo, ground handling and drones.
He affirmed that the ministry is taking steps in the direction to create such an ecosystem for aviation. According to him, the whole paradigm has changed as far as the civil aviation sector is concerned.
"Earlier, the notion was that you have got to have some base and capacity to be able to venture out and ask for an airport to be in your city because the economic growth that powers the city and its environment becomes the basis for an airport's location. Today, that whole paradigm has changed which means where you have airports, you will have economic growth and therefore the demand situation has completely changed," he said.
