With the flagship UDAN scheme achieving remarkable progress over the past decade, the Union government is all set to invest around Rs 28,840 crore in the next 10 years to further expand the scheme and strengthen air connectivity across the country.
Addressing mediapersons, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said, "In Mysuru, we had the Civil Aviation Consultative Committee Meeting along with the members of the committee who are mostly members of Parliament," Naidu said.
The Minister said the government was engaging with states to improve aviation infrastructure, enhance connectivity and ensure more efficient airport operations and management.
"We have been thoroughly engaging with the states on how to improve our infrastructure, how to provide better connectivity, how to do more efficient operations and management of our airports. So we have discussed that in the Consultative Committee," Naidu said.
The meeting in Mysuru focused on various aspects of the civil aviation sector, including the progress and future expansion of the UDAN scheme.
Earlier on Wednesday, Naidu flagged off the scaled-up phase of India's transhipment cargo reform at Delhi International Airport Limited's Transhipment Excellence Centre at Terminal 2 of IGI Airport.
The initiative aims to reduce cargo transit time and handling costs by eliminating mandatory re-screening of transhipment cargo. A proof of concept on the Chennai-Delhi-Frankfurt route reduced average end-to-end transit time from 60 hours to 20 hours, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The proof of concept, launched on June 20, 2026, has transshipped 280 MT of cargo, with aircraft capacity utilisation increasing from 75 per cent to nearly 100 per cent.
The network has now been expanded to Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Hyderabad, along with London and Copenhagen as additional international destinations. The ministry said the expansion is expected to raise Air India's monthly cargo carriage on these routes from 1,763 MT to 3,183 MT, an increase of nearly 80 per cent.
Naidu said the government's broader objective is to develop Indian airports into global passenger and cargo transit hubs.
With inputs from ANI