this story originally appeared in on jul 27 2018foreign travels of prime minister narendra modi are often critiqued by the opposition for their frequency as well as cost but though modi has spent more days abroad than his predecessor manmohan singh it has hardly cost moreet compared the foreign travels of modi in his first four years as prime minister and those of singh in the first four years of upa2 it has been found that both cost the government almost a similar amount of around rs 387 crore in terms of the money paid to air indiaboth have taken equal number of air india chartered flights in their four respective yearswhile manmohan singhs 31 trips in 20092013 cost rs 38635 crore modis equal number of trips in his first four years cost rs 38726 crore it is rs 91 lakh more than in manmohans first fouryear tenure in upa2 modi was also on five additional foreign trips in his first four years on an indian air force bbj aircraft to neighbouring nations for which the government did not have to paysenior government officials on the condition of anonymity said there was some confusion due to a ministry of external affairs reply to the parliament last week the response besides citing the chartered flight cost also mentioned the annual maintenance cost of the vvip aircraft charged by air india to the tune of around rs 220 crore and the cost of a hotline facilitycombining these three led to modis foreign travel cost being pegged in media at over rs 1400 crore this annual maintenance cost of around rs 220 crore has been paid in upas tenure as well along with the hotline cost and is similar to the price paid now this cost is catered for years now from a specific budget grant no 47 of ministry of home affairs that pertains to maintenance cost of vvip aircraft a senior government official told et the pmo on its website only mentions the chartered cost of flights when it comes to details of expenses of the last three prime ministers foreign tripsthat said modi has spent more days abroad than singh while singh spent 131 days abroad in the first four years of upa2 and 161 days abroad in entire upa2 tenure modi has spent 155 days abroad in his first four years and 182 days abroad as on date while singh made 38 trips abroad in his entire upa2 term modi is currently on his 43rd foreign trip to africa a senior government official said that can be explained given modis broader foreign policy ambit going to many countries that no pm had earlier visited or which manmohan singh did not visit and modis focus on connect events with indian diasporasingh was a less frequent traveller in upa1 days he went on only 34 foreign trips in five years as pm in upa1 with the total flight cost standing at around rs 292 crore in his first four years as