More Foreign Trips Than Manmohan Singh Yet Lesser Bill For PM Modi, Thanks To Multiple Destinations, Aircraft Choices

With Prime Minister Modi expected to take his last foreign visit of the current tenure to UAE, data from Prime Minister’s Office shows that the prime minister has taken more foreign trips that any of his predecessors in one term but at a lower cost to exchequer, reports Hindustan Times.

Till now, PM Modi has taken 44 trips to foreign countries, 6 more than his predecessor Manmohan Singh took during UPA-2. However, the expenses incurred on Modi’s foreign visits are almost Rs 50 crore lesser than that of the latter. As PM, Singh undertook 38 trips abroad in those five years, and incurred an expenditure of Rs 493.22 crore, while Modi has so far been charged Rs 443.4 crore for official foreign visits by Air India.

PM Modi was previously criticised by opposition for his foreign trips. While they argued that prime minister was neglecting the country, people and experts saw it as a sign of expanding influence of the nation, underlining the growing interaction between India, a nuclear power and one of the fastest growing major economies, and the international community.

The reason behind lower cost despite more journeys is Modi’s formula of “single ticket double journey” or in other words, travelling to multiple destinations during an overseas trip, as he told HT in an interview. While Manmohan Singh travelled mostly to one or two destinations, Modi flew to as many as to six countries on a single trip when he visited Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in 2015; 16 of his trips were to multiple countries.

Also, while during Singh’s tenure, Air India One was used even on short-haul tours, PM Modi used the business jet of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for six international trips, incurring no additional expense. Modi went to Nepal, Bangladesh, Iran and Singapore in the IAF’s Boeing 737 business jet that is used round the year exclusively for VVIP travel.

It is to be noted that the bills submitted by Air India don’t yet include expenses of five trips. While after adding these, the total cost incurred may shoot up for PM Modi, the average expense of Manmohan Singh will still be higher.

The Prime Minister is expected to travel to the United Arab Emirates this month to receive the UAE’s highest civilian award for the role he has played in providing a boost to bilateral strategic ties.