The government on Monday (13 February) informed the Parliament that 73 airports have been operationalised under the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme till January this year.
The Regional Connectivity Scheme – UDAN – was launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in October 2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity and making air travel affordable to the masses.
UDAN is a market driven scheme, under which the interested airlines, based on their assessment of demand on particular routes, submit their proposals at the time of bidding.
“As on 31.01.2023, a total number of 73 unserved/underserved airports including nine heliports and two water aerodromes have been operationalised, since 2017, under the UDAN scheme,” Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation General (Retired) V K Singh said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The minister further said that the UDAN is an ongoing scheme where bidding rounds are conducted from time to time for covering more destinations/stations and routes under the scheme.
The minister said that UDAN is a self-financing scheme.
“VGF [Viability Gap Funding] amount of around Rs 2,355 crore has been released to selected Airline Operators as on 31.01.2023 for the operation of UDAN flights,” he added.