New Delhi: Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia along with Minister of State for Civil Aviation, General Dr Vijay Kumar Singh (Retired) inaugurated a flight connecting Jaipur and Jodhpur virtually today.
The flight connecting Jaipur and Jodhpur, the two major cities of Rajasthan will be operated by IndigGo four days a week. IndiGo starts operating this route under the following schedule effective today.
Scindia said that it is a very important occasion that two important cities of the country are being connected. He also emphasized how this new connectivity will further strengthen the already established Golden Triangle Tourist Circuit of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur.
Scindia said that to cater to the increased air travel demand in Jodhpur, a new terminal building will be inaugurated soon. Built at a cost of Rs. 500 crores, with an area of 20,000 square meters, the airport will have the capacity to handle one thousand passengers and give a big boost to tourism and the local economy.
The Minister went ahead to talk about India’s emergence as the 3rd biggest aviation market in the world in terms of domestic traffic and 7th biggest in the world in terms of international and domestic traffic combined.
Ever since the Ministry of Civil Aviation launched the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN (UdeDeshkaAamNagrik) on October 21, 2016, to enhance regional air connectivity from unserved and underserved airports in the country and make air travel affordable to the masses, 459 UDAN routes involving 72 airports including nine heliports and two water aerodromes are now operationalised (as on January 30, 2023). Over 1.13 crore passengers have travelled in more than 2.16 Lakh UDAN flights, so far.
The Government has planned to develop one hundred airports by 2024 to support the UDAN scheme and operationalise 1000 UDAN routes during the currency of the Scheme.
Eighteen Airports have been identified under UDAN in Uttar Pradesh out of which Kanpur, Prayagraj, Kushinagar, Hindon, Agra and Bareilly have been operationalised. Six Airports have been identified under UDAN in Rajasthan out of which Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Kishangargh have been operationalised, and a new airport is being planned for Kota. Six Airports have been identified under UDAN in Odisha out of which Jeypore, Jharsuguda and Rourkela have been operationalised.
Nine heliports have been developed and operationalized in the Non-schedule operation permit (NSOP) category under the UDAN scheme in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Mandi and Rampur are in Himachal Pradesh while Almora, Chinyalisaur, Gaucher, Haldwani, New Tehri, Sahastradhara and Srinagar are in Uttarakhand.
– global bihari bureau
