Thursday, December 29 2005 16:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a bid to give boost to tourism and economic development, the Union Cabinet today (Dec 29, 2005) cleared a proposal for declaration of Jaipur airport as international airport, raising the number of airports with such status to 13 in the country.

Announcing this, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for declaration of the existing domestic airport at Jaipur as an international airport.

He said giving Jaipur airport international status would improve connectivity; offer wider choice of services at competitive cost to the air travellers.

This would also give boost to international tourism and economic development of the region, he said.

Jaipur is the third airport in northern region, apart from Delhi and Amritsar, to be declared as international airport.

Western region has three international airports; Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Goa, Eastern region two, Kolkata and Guwahati, and the maximum in Southern part of the country which has five, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.