HYDERABAD: Five years after the commencement of the Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme, the Centre has proposed two airstrips in Telangana in the next round of the regional connectivity programme.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Centre wants to connect 54 wildlife, religious, and tourist destinations under the next round UDAN scheme and would invite bids by the end of 2022. Under this, non-operational airstrips in Warangal and Basanth Nagar (Peddapalli) are recognised as potential airports because of their proximity to tourist destinations.
Earlier, the State proposed three greenfield and three brownfield airports and wrote several letters. The State had proposed to take up the development of three greenfield airports at Jakranpally (Nizamabad), Palvoncha (Bhadradri- Kothagudem) and Mahbubnagar, and three brownfield airports at Mamnoor, (Warangal), Basanth Nagar (Peddapalli) and Adilabad.
The selected 10 airstrips in proximity to wildlife sanctuaries are Nagarjuna Sagar in Andhra Pradesh, Paneri in Assam, Kishanganj in Bihar, Satna, Dhana and Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, Yavatmal in Maharashtra, Sawai Madhopur and Bharatpur in Rajasthan and Bishnupur in West Bengal.
A total of 29 airstrips were considered potential airports under UDAN 5.0. Another 15 airstrips were listed as religious destinations including Baripada and Konark in Odisha, Hassan and Kolar in Karnataka and Chinyalisaur, Uttarakhand.
UDAN was initiated on October 21, 2016, with the objective of providing air connectivity in Tier II and Tier III cities. It is a regional airport development program of the Centre and part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for upgrading under-serviced air routes.
The objective of UDAN is to make air travel affordable and improve economic development in India. At the beginning of the scheme, out of a total of 486 airports, 406 were under-serviced airports, and 27 were well-served airports. The scheme aims to develop new airports and enhance the existing regional airports to increase the number of operational airports for scheduled civilian flights.