UDAN to link 73 airports, helipads 

UDAN to link 73 airports, helipads 

Context:

• The Centre on Wednesday said 73 underserved and unserved airports and helipads would be connected under the phase 2 of the regional connectivity scheme UDAN.

Target:

• The scheme will provide around 26.5 lakh seats per annum that will be covered with [an] airfare cap of ₹2,500/hr of flying.
• In addition, around two lakh RCS (regional connectivity scheme) seats per annum are expected to be provided through helicopter operations.
• The States with maximum number of airports and helipads which will see activation under UDAN 2 scheme include Uttarakhand (15), Uttar Pradesh (9), Arunachal Pradesh (8), Himachal Pradesh (6), Assam (5) and Manipur (5).
• Some of the cities that would now be connected include Kargil, Darbhanga, Kasauli, Bokaro, Dumka, Hubli, Kannur and Pakyong, among others.
• This was the first time bids were received from helicopter operators under the scheme.

Viability gap funding

• These proposals would required a viability gap funding (VGF) of ₹487 crore per annum for fixed wing operations and ₹130 crore per annum for helicopter operations in the priority areas — which include the north-eastern and hill States,
• The Centre decided not to increase the ₹5,000 regional air connectivity levy charged from airlines flying on major routes to fund the UDAN scheme.

Regional connectivity scheme UDAN.

• UDAN-RCS, UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is a regional airport development and “Regional Connectivity Scheme” (RCS) of Government of India.

Objective:

• Making air travel affordable and widespread,
• To boost inclusive national economic development
• Job growth and air transport infrastructure development of all regions and states of India.

Components:

The scheme has two components.

1. The First component is to develop new and enhance the existing regional airports to increase the number of operational airports for the scheduled civilian flights from 70 (in May 2016, total 98 operational including army airports) to at least 150 airports (by December 2018) with regular scheduled flights.
2. The Second component is to add several hundred financially-viable capped-airfare new regional flight routes to connect more than 100 underserved and unserved airports in smaller towns with each other as well as with well served airports in bigger cities by using “Viability Gap Funding” (VGF) where needed.