78 new air routes approved under UDAN 4.0

New Delhi: Following three successful rounds of bidding , the Ministry of Civil Aviation  approved 78 new air routes under the 4^th round of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN), giving priority to the north-eastern region, hilly states and islands, on Thursday.

The 4th round of UDAN was launched in December 2019 with a special focus on North-Eastern Regions, Hilly States, and Islands. The airports that had already been developed by AAI are given higher priority for the award of VGF(Viability Gap Funding) under the Scheme. Under UDAN 4, the operation of helicopter and seaplanes is also been incorporated. Since its inception, MoCA has operationalized 274 UDAN routes that have connected 45 airports and 3 heliports.

The Ministry said it has given special boost to connectivity in North East with routes from Guwahati to Tezu, Rupsi, Tezpur, Passighat, Misa and Shillong. Moreover, people will also be able to fly from Hissar to Chandigarh, Dehradun and Dharmshala under these UDAN 4 routes. Routes from Varanasi to Chitrakoot and Shravasti were also approved, and  Agatti, Kavaratti and Minicoy islands of Lakshadweep were also connected by the new routes of UDAN 4.0.

So far, 766 routes have been sanctioned under the UDAN scheme. 29 served, 08 unserved (including 02 heliports and 01 water aerodrome), and 02 underserved airports have been included in the list for approved routes.

The new approved RCS routes are as below:

List of Unserved airports:

1. Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh
2. Rupsi, Assam
3. Bilaspur, Chattisgarh
4. Hisar, Haryana
5. Misa (Heliport), Assam
6. Geleki (Heliport), Assam
7. Minicoy, Lakshadweep
8. Kavaratti (Water aerodrome), Lakshadweep

List of Underserved airports:

1. Agatti, Lakshadweep
2. Passighat, Arunachal Pradesh