Prime Minister Narendra Modi made 84 foreign trips in four years, setting the exchequer back by Rs 1,484 crore. The details of Modi’s travel expenditure was shared by the Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh in a response to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha.
According to data shared in the Upper House, Rs 1,088.42 crore was spent on maintaining the Prime Minister’s aircraft. Modi’s first foreign trip as Prime Minister was to Bhutan in June 15, 2014, a couple of weeks after taking oath to the highest office in the land.
Modi visited a total of 84 countries in 42 foreign trips since taking over as prime minister in May 2014. According to Singh’s reply, the prime minister visited a maximum of 24 countries in 2015-16 followed by 19 in 2017-18 and 18 nations in 2016-17.
In 2014-15, Modi visited 13 countries — Bhutan was the first he visited as prime minister in June 2014. In 2018, he travelled to 10 countries with the last one being to China last month.
The cost for chartered flights to overseas destinations in 2014-15 was Rs 93.76 crore while in 2015-16, it was Rs 117 crore. In 2016-17, the cost was Rs 76.27 crore and in 2017-18, expense on chartered flight was Rs 99.32 crore.
“Diplomatic outreach during this period (since May 2014) has included first ever visits from India to several countries at the head of government level,” Singh said.
He said the outreach has led to enhanced engagement of India’s foreign partners in its flagship programmes.
