Building entire villages made of prefabricated steel, large steel silos to store food grains across the country and increase in steel components in highways, flyovers, bridges, automobiles and aviation can stimulate domestic demand for the metal, according to experts from the steel industry.

Domestic air passenger traffic went up by 25.13 per cent during last month to 95.79 lakh, according to official data. “Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January 2017 were 95.79 lakh as against 76.55 lakh during the corresponding period of the previous year, thereby registering a growth of 25.13 per cent," said a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

GMR Hyderabad International Airport, which operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, has won the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Chairman’s Order of Merit for its focus on environmental sustainability and becoming the first airport in the Asia-Pacific region to become carbon neutral.

Domestic air traffic is expected to grow 25 per cent and cross 130 million in financial year 2017-18, but airlines will see bigger risks to profitability because of rising costs and yield pressures, aviation consultancy CAPA has said in its India outlook which it released recently.

A proposal by the GMR Group for converting an aviation SEZ into a multi-product SEZ has been rejected by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change

The IMC Chamber of Commerce & Industry has convened its first international conference on ´Smart Cities - Reimagining Urban Spaces and Financing´ in Delhi. The conference was inaugurated by Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation.

The Union Budget has allocated Rs 2,41,000 crore for the transportation sector. ´For transportation sector as a whole, including rail, roads, shipping, I have provided Rs 241,387 crore in 2017-18,´ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while presenting the Union Budget 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha.

About 44 airports across the country have high potential for operations under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for civil aviation, UDAN, according to a report from industry body FICCI.

A sum of $10 billion would be spent in the next five years to develop airport infrastructure in India so that the country could become the world´s third largest aviation market in seven years, Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey has said.