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After 3 successful rounds of bidding,
- The Civil Aviation Ministry has approved 78 new routes under the 4th round of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN),
- To further enhance the connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country,
- The Ministry of Civil Aviation said on Thursday.
- 274 UDAN routes are operational.
About UDAN 4.0
- The awarding of these 78 routes under UDAN 4 is in line with the Act East Policy of the
- Central Government.
- The airports that had already been developed by AAI are given higher priority for the award of
- VGF under the Scheme.
- Under UDAN 4, the operation of helicopter and seaplanes is also been incorporated.
- A total of 18 unserved or underserved airports would also be connected to metro cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi, etc.
About UDAN scheme
- It is a regional connectivity scheme of Government of India (GoI) launched in 2016.
- It aims to develop smaller regional airports to allow common citizens easier access to aviation services.
Objectives of the Scheme
- Through better connectivity, boosting the inclusive development.
- Providing job opportunities through air transport infrastructure in remote areas.
Features
- The duration of the scheme is 10
- Airlines are selected through a competitive bidding process.
- The successful bidder would then have exclusive rights to operate the route for a period of three years.
- Under UDAN 1.0 phase, 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 flight routes to 70 airports (36 newly made airports).
- Under UDAN 2.0 announced 73 underserved and unserved airports. Helipads were also connected under phase 2.
- Under UDAN 3.0 Tourism Routes were included. Number of routes in the North-East Region was also included.
- Central government provides,
- Subsidy to cover Viability Gap funding (VGF) to airlines & Concessional GST on tickets booked.
- State Governments helps to provide land for airport,
- GST reduction to 1% for 10 years
- Trained security personnel
- Utilities at subsidised rates 20% of VGF.
Challenges for the scheme
- Infrastructure for take off and landing of flights.
- Discovering the Traffic route.
- Already choked Capacity of India’s metro airports.
- Subsequently, finding convenient time slots for every route will become an administrative challenge.
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