On Wednesday, the minister of civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, said that the centre had succeeded in democratizing the civil aviation sector, which was considered to be elitist in the country. The Centre's UDAN programme ''Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik'', which is based on the Viability Gap Funding model, has made substantial changes in the connectivity in the country's regional territories.
Scindia, who spoke at the BT Mindrush event in Mumbai, said: 463 routes that were never thought to be possible have been made possible through the UDAN scheme. In the last 6 years, about 74 airports, including Kishangarh in Rajasthan, Rupsi in Assam, Darbhanga and others, were built and made functional. If we talk about throughput, these airports, like Darbhanga and all, bring in about 2 to 5 lakh passengers per year. We have flown about 1 crore, 16 lakh passengers through Udan, he said. The centre's UDAN scheme aims to link small and medium-sized cities with major cities via air service. Airlines compete for air routes and participate in bids. A airline who bids for the lowest subsidy is granted a contract. The aim was to put small-town India on the airline's list of destinations, by encouraging airlines to fly on regional routes.
UDAN's fifth phase of RCS - UDAN was launched last week. On April 21, the Ministry of Civil Aviation MoCA began the process of inviting bids from airlines for various routes under the fifth round of bidding for its regional connectivity scheme UDAN by releasing a bid document.
Scindia, speaking about UDAN's reach and wide network, said the scheme is not just for the farmers or just the common man, it is for the entrepreneurs and new airlines. The Udan route, which was launched under the Udan program, has now become a viable route. Many airlines are still flying Udan flights for three years, but many customers still want to travel by air. Udan has made multiple routes within the country Go sustainable, said Rahul Kanwal, News Director, India Today and Aaj Tak.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation said only aircraft operations of Category 2 20 80 seats and Category 3 80 seats will fall in this round, with no restrictions on the distance between the origin and destination, with stage length cap of 600 km waived.
The ministry also said that the Viability Gap Funding has been revised. Viability gap funding has been increased to 600 km from 500 km earlier this year, bringing the total to 600 km.
The Centre first released the nation's National Civil Aviation Policy in 2016, where the UDAN scheme was the most crucial element. In April 2017 Narendra Modi launched the first aircraft from Shimla to Delhi under the UDAN scheme.