Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign trips since 2014 have cost the government over Rs 2,000 crore, said Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, to a question raised by a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha.
Responding to Communist Party of India MP Binoy Viswam on Thurday, 13 December, Singh gave details of the Prime Minister's trips between 15 June 2014 and 3 December 2018, reported Scroll.in.
Viswam had sought information regarding Modi’s number of trips abroad, the ministers who accompanied them on each of the visits, the agreements signed and the amount paid to the carrier Air India, the report said.
Singh said that a total of Rs 1,583.18 crore was spent on aircraft maintenance alone, while Rs 429.28 crore was spent on chartered flights. Rs 9.12 crore was spent on on a secure hotline between 2014 and 2017.
The response included informal trips to China’s Wuhan and Japan, where the prime minister sought to strengthen ties with his foreign counterparts.
Earlier in July 2018, Singh told the parliament that Rs 1,484 crore has been incurred on chartered flights, maintenance of aircraft, and hotline facilities in the course of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visits to 84 countries since June 2014.
(With inputs from Scroll.in)
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