"All these airports are capable of handling medium capacity-range, long-range type aircraft and are also equipped with facilities for night operations," Finance Minister P Chidambram told reporters after the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs here.

He said the airports have been upgraded to the international standards and "this declaration is expected to provide impetus to domestic or international tourism and contribute to economic development of the concerned regions."

There are 454 airports and airstrips in the country, of which the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) owns and manages 97 airports and 28 civil enclaves at defence airfields.

So far, 16 of them have been designated as international airports while several other airports had been designated as 'Limited International' for a restricted number of global flights from there.

Conversion ofthe streetcar routes. As late as 1933 (first three images below on left) the development of the city was tightly bound to the streetcar lines. The city existed as a grid of streets with rows of buildings clustered tightly about the streetcar lines, with open land only a few blocks beyond.

The difference between rail transit and highways lies in the degree of dispersion. With the streetcar, people had to walk to and from the stops. This naturally limited this distance that buildings could be built from the stops to no more than about a half mile, often less. With highways (below far right) this is not the case. When a motorist exits a highway, they continue to drive until they reach their final destination, where they can then