Union Civil Aviation Minister releases Krishi UDAN 2.0

What is the News?

The Union Civil Aviation Minister has launched the Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme.

What is Krishi UDAN 2.0 Scheme?

Krishi UDAN Scheme was launched in 2020 on international and national routes to assist farmers in transporting agricultural products so that it improves their value realisation.

Krishi UDAN 2.0 will focus on transporting perishable food products from the hilly areas, northeastern states and tribal areas.

The scheme will be implemented at 53 airports across the country, mainly focusing on Northeast and tribal regions, and is likely to benefit farmers, freight forwarders and Airlines.

What are the key features of the Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme?

Facilitating and incentivizing movement of Agri-produce by air transportation: The scheme will provide a full waiver of landing, parking, Terminal Navigation and Landing Charges and Route Navigation Facilities Charges for domestic airlines.

Strengthening cargo-related infrastructure at airports and off airports: The Ministry will facilitate the development of a hub and spoke model and freight to transport perishable products.

Concessions sought from other bodies: The Ministry has asked states to reduce sales tax on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) to 1 percent for airlines under Krishi UDAN 2.0.

Resources-Pooling through establishing convergence mechanism: Collaboration with other government departments and regulatory bodies.

Focus Routes: Seven focus routes and the agro products to be flown from there have been identified under the scheme.

Technological convergence: Development of E-KUSHAL (Krishi UDAN for Sustainable Holistic Agri-Logistics).

What is E-KUSHAL?

E-KUSHAL is a platform that will facilitate information dissemination to all the stakeholders. 

This will be a single platform that will provide relevant information at the same time will also assist in coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme. 

Source: This post is based on the article “Union Civil Aviation Minister releases Krishi UDAN 2.0” published in PIB on 27th October 2021.

Terms to know:

• UDAN Scheme