UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) Scheme

Why is in news? RCS- UDAN Completes 6 Successful Years

The Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik), a government-backed initiative to improve infrastructure and connectivity in India, especially in remote and underserved regions, completes six years.

This is first-of-its-kind scheme globally to create economically viable flights on regional routes so that flying becomes affordable to the common man even in small towns.

The first RCS-UDAN flight was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on April 27, 2017, connecting Shimla to Delhi.

The scheme focuses on improving unserved air routes in underserved regions of the country and fulfilling the aspirations of the common citizens.

So far, RCS-UDAN has facilitated travel of more than 130 lakh passengers, demonstrating its success in enhancing air travel accessibility.

It is a key component of the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) which was released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (India) in 2016.

The scheme is jointly funded by the central government and state governments.

Two components of UDAN:

Airports: The first component is to develop new airports and enhance the existing regional airports to increase the number of operational airports for scheduled civilian flights.

Flight routes: The second component is to add several hundred financially-viable, capped-airfare, new regional flight routes to connect more than 100 under-served and un-served airports in smaller towns by using "Viability Gap Funding" (VGF) where needed.

Various versions of UDAN Scheme:

UDAN 1.0: 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 flight routes to 70 airports (including 36 newly made operational airports)

UDAN 2.0: 73 underserved and unserved airports were announced and for the first time, helipads were also connected.

UDAN 3.0: In coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, Tourism Routes were included. In addition to Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes, several routes in the North-East Region came under the ambit of the scheme.

UDAN 4.0: Gave impetus to North-Eastern Regions, Hilly States, and Islands. The operation of helicopters and seaplanes incorporated.

UDAN 5.0: It focus is on Category-2 (20-80 seats) and Category-3 (>80 seats) aircraft. Similarly, the cap of 600 km has been removed and there is no restriction on the distance between the origin and destination of the flight.

UDAN 5.1: This round of RCS-UDAN is designed specifically for helicopter routes by increasing the scope of operations for helicopter operators, enhancing VGF and reducing Airfare Caps.

UDAN 5.2: It provide impetus to the tourism sector through small aircraft (<20 seats). The Scheme will provide greater operational flexibility to the small aircraft operators, by allowing them to operate a maximum of 40% of annually quoted RCS seats and a minimum of 10% of annually quoted RCS seats in any given quarter.