Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN)

Ministry of Civil Aviation

Context:

Taking another step in boosting the regional aerial connectivity in India, Star Air today commenced the direct daily flight operations from Kalaburagi, Karnataka to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh under the RCS-UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) of Government of India. Attesting the dual objectives of the UDAN scheme; making air travel affordable for the people & simultaneously enhance its coverage in the country, 305 UDAN routes & 53 airports including 5 heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes have been operationalized till date.

UDAN- Giving wings to Common man.

UDAN:

• Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) was launched as a regional connectivity scheme under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 2016.
• It is an innovative scheme to develop the regional aviation market.
• The objective of scheme is to create affordable yet economically viable and profitable flights on regional routes so that flying becomes affordable to the common man even in small towns.
• The scheme envisages providing connectivity to un-served and underserved airports of the country through the revival of existing air-strips and airports. The scheme is operational for a period of 10 years.
  
  
  • Under-served airports are those which do not have more than one flight a day, while unserved airports are those where there are no operations.

UDAN 1.0

• Under this phase, 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 flight routes to 70 airports (including 36 newly made operational airports)

UDAN 2.0

• In 2018, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced 73 underserved and unserved airports.
• For the first time, helipads were also connected under phase 2 of UDAN scheme.

UDAN 3.0

• Key Features of UDAN 3 included:
  
  
  • Inclusion of Tourism Routes under UDAN 3 in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism.
  • Inclusion of Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes.
  • Bringing in a number of routes in the North-East Region under the ambit of UDAN.

UDAN 4.0

78 new routes under the 4th round of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- UdeDesh Ka AamNagrik (UDAN) have been approved following the three successful rounds of bidding by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. This will further enhance the connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country. The North Eastern Region, Hilly States and Islands have been given priority in the approval process for the new routes.

Special boost is being given to connectivity in North East with routes from Guwahati to Tezu, Rupsi, Tezpur, Passighat, Misa and Shillong. People will be able to fly from Hissar to Chandigarh, Dehradun and Dharmshala under these UDAN 4 routes. Routes from Varanasi to Chitrakoot and Shravasti have also been approved.Agatti, Kavaratti and Minicoy islands of Lakshadweep have also been connected by the new routes of UDAN 4.0.

So far, 766 routes have been sanctioned under the UDAN scheme. 29 served, 08 unserved (including 02 heliports and 01 water aerodrome), and 02 underserved airports have been included in the list for approved routes.

The 4th round of UDAN was launched in December 2019 with a special focus on North-Eastern Regions, Hilly States, and Islands. The airports that had already been developed by AAI are given higher priority for the award of VGF(Viability Gap Funding) under the Scheme. Under UDAN 4, the operation of helicopter and seaplanes is also been incorporated. Since its inception, MoCA has operationalized 274 UDAN routes that have connected 45 airports and 3 heliports.

Flight between Kalaburagi to Tirupati flagged

Due to the unavailability of any direct transportation mode between these two cities, people had to travel either by road or had to opt for a rail journey combined with a road trip, which took more than 12 hours by road & more than 20 hours by train & bus to cover the entire journey of 630 km. Now, people can opt for a direct flight and cover this long-distance journey in just 70 mins.

The airline, Star Air was awarded the Kalaburagi – Tirupati route under the RCS-UDAN-3 bidding process last year. The airline will be operating three weekly flights on the route and will deploy its 50-seater Embraer-145 luxury aircraft. With the flag-off, there are now 24 routes under the ambit of RCS-UDAN for Star Air.