More than 1 crore air passengers have availed benefit of the UDAN scheme: Dr VK Singh

New Delhi: More than one crore air passengers have availed the benefit of the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme since its inception. The scheme focuses on the connectivity between the Tier-2 and 3 cities in the country and the number of beneficiaries will increase manifold as the connectivity improves between unserved and underserved airports. This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen. Dr VK Singh (Retd) in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

UDAN is an ongoing scheme where bidding rounds are conducted periodically for covering more destinations/stations and routes. Four rounds have already been concluded under the scheme so far.

An airport which is included in the awarded routes of UDAN and requires upgradation/ development for commencement of RCS (Regional Connectivity Scheme) operations, is developed under "Revival/upgradation of unserved and underserved airports/heliports/water aerodromes" Scheme. The Government of India has approved a budget of Rs 4500 crore for the revival of existing unserved/ underserved airports/airstrips of the State Governments, Airports Authority of India (AAI), Public Sector Undertakings and Civil Enclaves.

Further, the government has accorded 'in-principle' approval for the setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports across the country namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar (Rajkot) in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi (Nellore), Bhogapuram and Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh.

So far, eight Greenfield airports namely Durgapur, Shirdi, Sindhudurg, Pakyong, Kannur, Kalaburagi, Orvakal and Kushinagar have been operationalised.

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