NEW DELHI: With a view to strengthen regional air connectivity in the country, the Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to revive and develop a number of un-served and under-served airports across the country at a cost of Rs 4,500 crore.
As an outcome, small cities and towns will be connected on commencement of operation of flights to under-served/un-served airports and it will further boost the economic development in these as well as surrounding areas in terms of job creation and related infrastructure development.
The civil aviation ministry has received an overwhelming response from airlines in two rounds of RCS bidding held so far.
In the first round of UDAN bidding, 128 routes were assigned to five airline operators for 43 un-served and under-served airports and airstrips in March 2017.
In the second round, 86 proposals involving 325 routes were awarded to 15 selected airline operators in January, 2018.
During UDAN version 3.0, to increase the tourism potential at the coastal areas, tourism routes in coordination with Ministry of Tourism and Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes were included. A few airports and aerodromes have also been added in the Udan 3 which was announced recently. Cities like Hazaribagh, Meerut, Kurnool, Daman, Ramnad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri have been added in un-served airports category and Kargil and Thoise have been added under underserved airports.
Besides, Havelock, Long Island, Neil Port and Parkasam Barrage have been included as upcoming water aerodromes for operation of sea planes.