BENGALURU:Under the much-anticipated initiative of the Union government for regional air connectivity — UDAN — tier-II cities in Karnataka have much to cheer about after the completion of second round of bidding. If things work out as planned, air travellers from cities like Mysuru, Hubballi, Vidyanagar and Koppal will be benefited.
According to civil aviation ministry, in the second round of bidding under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), different airlines have been selected to operate from various cities in Karnataka. To a question, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha on Thursday said that 15 airline operators were selected in the second round of bidding for 86 routes/networks. Of the 86 routes/networks, 12 cover cities which includes Bengaluru, Vidyanagar, Koppal and Hubballi. After the first round of bidding, 46 routes are operational which includes three from Karnataka — Bengaluru-Vidyanagar, Mysuru-Chennai and Vidyanagar-Hyderabad.
According to officials at Mysuru airport, the clearance has been given and they are just waiting for the operations to start. Civil aviation ministry said that under the scheme, the selected airline operator shall be obligated to commence flight operations within a period of 180 days from the issuance of letter of award. Delay in commencement of RCS routes are monitored by the Airports Authority of India and show-cause notices will be issued to airlines which fail to start.Minister for Medium & Heavy Industries R V Deshpande said the airlines are expected to operate soon.
RCS routes after second round of bidding
Chennai-Hubballi-Pune-Hubballi-Chennai
Hyderabad-Baldota/Koppal-Bengaluru-Vellore-Chennai-Vellore-B’luru-Baldota/Koppal-
Hyderabad-Kolhapur- Bengaluru-Kolhapura-Hyderabad-Hubballi-Hyderabad-Sholapur-Hyderabad
Hyderabad-Hubballi-Hyderabad
Bengaluru-Darbhanga-Bengaluru
Bengaluru-Ozar (Nasik)-Hindon-Ozar-Bengaluru
Bengaluru-Hubballi-Ahmedabad-Hubballi-Chennai-Hubballi-Bengaluru
Bengaluru-Allahabad-Pune-Allahabad-Bengaluru
Bengaluru-Kannur-Chennai-Kannur-Bengaluru-Sholapur-Bengaluru
Bengaluru-Kannur-Bengaluru
Kochi-Hubballi-Goa-Hubballi-Kochi
Hubballi-Tirupati-Hubballi-Hindon-Hubballi-Pune-Hubballi
Kannur-Bengaluru-Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram-Kannur