By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Gen. (Dr) V. K. Singh Retd) in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UDAN (Ude Deshka Aam Nagrik) on 21-10-2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity and making air travel affordable to the masses. UDAN is a market driven scheme. An airport which is included in the awarded routes of UDAN and requires upgradation/development for commencement of RCS operations, is developed under “Revival of unserved and underserved airports” scheme.
Airports Authority of India(AAI), the Implementing Agency has identified 154 RCS airports including 14 water aerodromes and 36 helipads so far under UDAN for operation of RCS flights. Airports Authority of India(AAI), the Implementing Agency, has awarded 948 routes, from which, 405 routes involving 65 airports including 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes have been operationalized under UDAN as on 09.03.2022.
Besides Viability Gap Funding (VGF), other concessions from Central, State Governments and airport operators are extended to Selected Airline Operators (SAOs) to encourage operations from unserved/underserved airports/heliports/water aerodromes and to keep the air fare affordable.
While launching the UDAN Scheme in 2016, the Government had capped the Airfare at Rs. 2500 for a distance of 500 km to 600 km per seat under Regional Connectivity routes (equivalent to one-hour flight). The capping is subject to indexation as per the formula specified in the UDAN Scheme document.
These projections, however, are subject to reassessment given the unpredictable nature of the Covid pandemic and the sharp increase in aviation fuel prices recently.
The Government has taken several steps to meet the increasing demand in aviation sector in future, some of which include the following:
(i) AAI has taken up development of new and existing airports with a projected capital expenditure of around Rs. 25,000 crores in next five years. This includes construction of new terminals, expansion and modification of existing terminals, expansion and/ or strengthening of existing runways, aprons, Airport Navigation Services (ANS) infrastructure, control towers and technical blocks etc.
(ii) The Public Private Partnership (PPP) airports at Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are undertaking major expansion projects of around Rs. 30,000 crores by 2025. Additionally, Rs. 36,000 crores have been planned for investment in the development of new Greenfield airports across the country under PPP mode.
(iii) Government of India has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country. So far, eight Greenfield airports namely, Sindhudurg and Shirdi in Maharashtra, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala, Orvakal in Andhra Pradesh, Kalaburagi in Karnataka and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh have been operationalized.
(iv) Under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UdeDeshkaAamNagrik (UDAN), 405 routes connecting 65 airports (including 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes) have been operationalised as on 08th March 2022.
(v) Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate has been reduced from 18% to 5% for domestic Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services.
(vi) A conducive aircraft leasing and financing environment has been enabled.
(vii) The domestic capacity of the airlines has been restored to full, as in during pre-Covid times.
(viii) Improvement in air navigation infrastructure at Indian airports is being carried out.
(ix) The number of freighter aircraft deployed by Indian carriers has been increased from 7 in 2018 to 28 in 2021. As a result, the share of Indian carriers in international freighter movements has increased from 2% to 19% over last two years.
