A total of 21 greenfield airports are to be set up in the country and 11 are operationalized, said the Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Civil Aviation VK.Singh in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The Centre has formulated a Greenfield Airports Policy 2008 which provides detailed guidelines, procedures, and steps related to the construction of greenfield airports across India, including in Bihar.

Under this, the Centre has accorded 'in-principle' approval for the setting up of 21 greenfield airports namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, etc.

Out of these, 11 greenfield airports viz. Durgapur, Shirdi, Kannur, Pakyong, Kalaburagi, Orvakal (Kurnool), Sindhudurg, Kushinagar, Itanagar, Mopa, and Shivamogga have been operationalized, he said.

The government has also granted the first stage clearance i.e. site clearance for the construction of three Greenfield airports namely Alwar in Rajasthan, Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.

"The responsibility of implementation of airport projects including funding of the projects rests with the concerned airport developer including the respective state government (in case the State government is the project proponent)," he added.