New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday signed 21 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with States and Union Territories to start the next phase of the UDAN scheme to develop regional connectivity.
The MoUs were signed in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, Minister of State Murlidhar Mohol, Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha and Airports Authority of India Chairman Vipin Kumar.
The documents set-up a framework for the Centre, States/UTs and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to jointly identify and develop aviation infrastructure based on regional connectivity needs.
Naidu said the next phase of the UDAN scheme would facilitate Centre-State coordination besides working towards the larger goal of building regional aviation infrastructure. The scheme has so far operationalised 687 routes and 95 aerodromes with more than 3.66 lakh flights carrying around 1.71 crore passengers since its launch, the ministry said.
The next phase of the scheme to be called Modified UDAN will focus on keeping costs low besides ensuring sustainability, transparent process of challenge mode selection and promoting indigenous manufacturing. The government has set a target of 120 new destinations and four crore additional passengers in the next 10 years.
The ministry has also launched a Challenge Mode Portal for Aerodrome Development for States and UTs to nominate airstrips and helipads for development under the scheme.
In addition, the ministry released the scheme document for next round of UDAN route-bidding process. Airlines will be invited to bid for the identified routes in the challenge mode to expand air connectivity in areas which do not have adequate connectivity.
The launch of the next phase of the UDAN scheme comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the next phase of the scheme at Jodhpur on July 4 and a stakeholder workshop on July 16.
The ministry said the new phase of the UDAN scheme would take the programme from policy discussions to execution mode with focus on aviation infrastructure building, regional connectivity and Centre-State coordination.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.