New Delhi, Jan. 9 -- India's plan to connect its interior areas by air has run into heavy weather, with expensive infrastructure and commercial viability playing spoilsport while hundreds of crores are being spent to maintain airports where no planes are landing.

The total expense of the government is nearly Rs.900 crore on 15 regional airports that are currently non-operational. These airports, which were built under the Union government's UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) connectivity scheme, continue to incur expenses while their flights remain suspended.

The total expenses over eight years from 2017, as per documents submitted by the civil aviation ministry to Parliament, highlight the fraught nature of expansion in the aviation sector....