Civil Aviation Ministry identifies, approves 78 new routes under Phase 1 of UDAN 4.0

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has identified and approved 78 new routes under the Phase 1 of UDAN 4.0 on Monday and has said that at least 100 airports or helicopters or water aerodromes will be developed by the year 2024 under the  Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- UdeDeshkaAamNagrik (UDAN). According to the official Minsitry release, this was after three rounds of bidding under the scheme before the COVID-19 pandemic and 688 valid routes were awarded but only 281 routes were chosen to be operationalised. 

After the domestic flight operations were suspended from March 25, 2020, in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak, the domestic air services including the RCS operations have been resumed with effect from May 25 and airlines have been resuming the commenced RCS routes in a calibrated manner. Now, after the approval of 78 new routes, the Airports Authority of India, the Implementing Agency has initiated the process of awarding these routes to the Selected Airlines Operators (SAOs). 

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Reasons for non-operationalised UDAN routes

From lack of infrastructures at civil airports to non-completion of the process involved in obtaining the Scheduled Commuter Operators Permit, the reasons for the few non-operationalised UDAN routes were also revealed by the Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri. Due to the unprecedented outbreak of novel coronavirus back in December 2019, believed to be originated from China, the commencement of civil work at the airports witnessed a delay. 

In the written reply Civil Aviation Minister explained the reasons for non-operationalisation of few UDAN routes saying, "1. Lack of infrastructure at civil airports due to non-availability of land, delay related to compliance of the regulations by the airport operators, lack of road connectivity to the airports. 2. Non-completion of the process involved in obtaining Scheduled Commuter Operators Permit by the Airlines."

Furthermore, the suspension of the domestic operations, as well as the commencement of the new routes, were also significantly impacted. The fourth round of bidding has commenced on December 3, 2019. Here is the full list of the unserved and underserved airports/airstrips State-wise as per the official RCS document. The announcement was made by Hardeep Singh Puri at the inaugural event of flight operations by Alliance Air from Jagdalpur to Raipur in Chhattisgarh to Telangana in Hyderabad under the UDAN scheme.

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Image: PTI