The government has decided to set up 51 new low-cost airports with an aim to the give a fillip to civil aviation sector and increase air connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Airports Authority of India will set up these airports in 51 cities in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said, the government has also decided to grant international airport status to Bhubaneswar and Imphal airports.

Construction of eight greenfield airports this year will be awarded under public-private-participation, PPP, mode for Navi Mumbai, Juhu in Mumbai, Goa, Kannur, Rajguru Nagar Chakan at Pune, Sriperumbudur, Bellary and Raigarh.

The government is also mulling operation and maintenance of airports at Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad through PPP contracts.

In a bid to ramp up investor sentiment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set an investment target of 1.15 lakh crore rupees in PPP projects across infrastructure sectors in civil aviation, rail, port and power in the next six months.

The decisions were taken at a meeting Prime Minister held Friday to finalise infrastructure projects for 2013-14.