Indian Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday said it is the right time for the country to look into aerospace product manufacturing.
"It is time for India to look into manufacturing of aerospace products," Scindia said at the three-day CAPA India Aviation Summit in New Delhi.
At present, India has 35 flight training organizations (FTOs) and 15 more slated to be launched by the end of 2023.
Scindia also said that India plans to invest billions of dollars in aircraft, airports, and recruitment as the country seeks to meet booming air travel demand.
"We need to put in place the civil aviation infrastructure and capabilities that by 2047 would be able to support a $20 trillion economy within India," Scindia said.
Speaking about the expansion of airports and fleet, he said, "Four years ago, we had a fleet of 400 planes, now it is 700, and in coming five to seven years, it will be 2,000 planes."
Sharing the data on daily passengers, he said the current footfall is less than half a million (420,000-440,000), but it is expected that demand will start growing from October, likely to break previous records.
By 2029-30, India's domestic passenger traffic is likely to touch 350 million, he said.
Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated an aircraft manufacturing project in Gujarat, the first project of its kind in which a private company manufactures a military aircraft in India.
The project, valued at 219.35 billion rupees ($2.66 billion), involves the supply of 56 C-295 MW transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force, Airbus will deliver 16 aircraft between September next year and August 2025.