bhopal after assuming charge of the civil aviation department union minister jyotiraditya scindia received the very first demand for the expansion of gwalior airport and removing obstacles in the construction of new terminalsamid modernisation of indore and bhopal international airports passengers were also waiting to receive international flights for the last nine years but delay in bipartite agreements with the airline operators has emerged as the biggest obstaclein a letter to scindia lok sabha member from gwalior vivek shejwalkar urged that additional land for the expansion of the new terminal is available near the existing terminal which could be developed very soonthe matter for the expansion and reconstruction of the gwalior airport terminal is in progress for the new terminal additional land of the central government undertaking potato research center is available near the existing terminal there is a coincidence that the ministry of agriculture also lies with union minister narendra singh tomar who is from this region you are requested to take immediate action for the construction of a new terminal so that modern facilities can be made available to the passengers on the lines of indorebhopal airports said shejwalkargwalior airport which is being named after rajmata vijayaraje scindia the grandmother of jyotiraditya has been in headlines for its expansion activities for the last three years scindia himself had written to the then civil aviation minister hardeep singh puri for the expansion and development of the airport and met him once too fortunately he has been appointed to the same post now and the duty to develop the airport now lies on himsimilarly the issue of international airports at bhopal and indore will also come before scindia raja bhoj airport in bhopal has got the international terminal ready since june 20 2011 and ahilya bai airport in indore since february 14 2012 however airline officials cite inadequate passenger load as the reason for not starting international operations from bhopal and indorethe aviation ministry also has the key role of boosting the centres regional connectivity scheme and leasing out airports under the publicprivate partnership model both of these have slowed down during the pandemic but the bipartite agreement between the airline operators and the civil aviation government has been pending since precovid era delay in an agreement will not make the dream feasible to operate international flights from indore and bhopal said an aviation expert sources said the rcs regional connectivity scheme udan has been a pet scheme of the prime minister unfortunately it has not seen the kind of success which it should have after multiple rounds of bidding the operational routes remain less than 50 per cent of what was bid outairlines like air deccan air odisha have gone belly up while spicejet has cancelled multiple routes which it started the aim of having 100 new airports including seaports and heliports is also turning out to be a pipedream this is a big challenge before scindia said expertswhen scindia ji was not a minister he had a