Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath informed the PM that though the state received 10.4% less rainfall between June 1 and August 8, four rivers -- Ghaghra , Rapti, Sharda and Gandak -- crossed the red mark due to 20% excess rainfall.VARANASI AIRPORT, in the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will by the year-end be among the first few airports run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to start paperless entry of passengers using facial recognition security system.
This was communicated by officials during a virtual review meeting of civil aviation projects in Uttar Pradesh by Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. As part of the Centre’s Digi Yatra scheme, Varanasi was among the four airports chosen for paperless entry through facial recognition.
The meeting was mainly for development of infrastructure facilities for three airports in the state – Ayodhya, Chitrakoot and Myorpur in Sonebhadra district. The district magistrates of these districts informed about the progress of these projects and CM asked them to quickly remove the remaining hurdles so that the projects can pick up speed. Adityanath said that at present work is under way for 17 airports in the state and requested the Union Minister for assistance in resolving issues related to development works at Bareilly, Hindon, Saharanpur, Meerut, Lucknow and Varanasi airports. While officials informed that since Hindon and Meerut fall under 150 km radius of the existing airports in Delhi and NCR region, permission would have to be taken from the developers of these airports before starting operations, while work is under way to soon start operations at Bareilly and Saharanpur airports.
The CM said that earlier there were just two airports that operational in UP but now there are seven. He said that once operational, 17 airports would add to the civil aviation infrastructure of the state.
During the meeting, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that while Ayodhya and Chitrakoot airports are significant districts in terms of religious tourism, there are lot of tourism opportunities in Sonebhadra as well. Adityanath emphasised the “natural beauty” of Sonebhadra region.
A government spokesperson informed that in the past three years alone, Uttar Pradesh has got 19 flights, while there were just 25 domestic flights that were operational before 2017 along with 12 international flights, the number of domestic flights has increased to 51 at present, claiming that once operational, the Jewar International Airport, which is coming up on 1224 hectares, would be among the biggest airports of the world. He informed that work was on to develop airports in Azamgarh, Aligarh, Mooradabad, Shravasti, Chitrakoot, Myorpur in Sonebhadra as well as Jhansi airport along with Ghazipur, Saharanpur and Meerut.