New Delhi, May 2 (IANS): The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the upgradation and expansion of Lucknow, Chennai and Guwahati airports at a cost of over Rs 5,000 crore, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Prasad said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the upgradation of these airports with funds from a Rs 21,000 crore corpus created for various airports in the country.

"A sum of Rs 2,467 crore has been approved for the upgradation of Chennai airport with a new terminal building that will incorporate green building features with an aim to achieve the 'GRIHA 4 Star' rating," he said here.

"For the construction of new terminal buildings at Guwahati and Lucknow airports the sums approved are Rs 1,383 crore and Rs 1,232 crore, respectively," he added.

The Airports Authority of India is currently implementing plans for creating additional capacity at other airports -- Agartala, Patna, Srinagar, Pune, Trichy, Vijayawada, Port Blair, Jaipur, Mangalore, Dehradun, Jabalpur, Kolhapur, Goa, Rupsi, Leh, Calicut and Imphal with capital expenditure of Rs 20,178 crore in the next four-five years.