MoCA adds 22 new air routes under UDAN scheme, of these six are in northeastern India

The routes which have been operationalised in the north eastern states are direct flights from Shillong (Meghalaya) to Agartala (Tripura) and to Silchar (Assam), Dibrugarh (Assam) to Dimapur (Nagaland).

Across rest of India, latest operational routes added are Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) to Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) which is a state supported UDAN route; Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) to Bangalore (Karnataka), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), and Chennai (Tamil Nadu), from Agra (Uttar Pradesh) to Bangalore (Karnataka) and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), from Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) to Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh).

The Indigo airlines was awarded the Shillong-Agartala, Shillong-Silchar, Kurnool-Bangalore, Visakhapatnam, and Chennai routes under the UDAN 4 bidding process last year.

In addition to these, Agra – Bangalore and Agra – Bhopal route under UDAN 3, Prayagraj  – Bhubaneswar and Prayagraj – Bhopal route under UDAN 2, and Dibrugarh – Dimapur were awarded under UDAN 3 bidding process.

Alliance Air was awarded the Lucknow – Gorakhpur route under the UDAN 3 bidding process.

UDAN (‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagarik’) is a regional connectivity scheme launched by the Union government in June 2016 to ensure more people can avail the country’s air network.                           

Till date, 57 unserved and underserved airports (including five heliports and two water aerodromes) with 347 routes have been operationalised under UDAN.