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Modi Govt. 2.0 is all set to raise UDAN budget.The newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who sworn in on Thursday for the second time in the office, is about to provide wings to the dream of millions by raising the budget for UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) considerably for the next ten years.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has ready the proposal seeking further funds for the Centre’s flagship scheme. “The additional fund requirement is to bridge the deficit expected in the execution of the UDAN scheme. it’s being submitted for approval of the competent authority,” an official told IANS. Assuming that operations begin on all the routes where a contract has been awarded for providing regional connectivity, the available funds wouldn’t be enough. an Airports Authority of Asian nation (AAI) team implementing the UDAN scheme has calculable the overall subsidy of regarding INR 1,800-2,000 Crore annually if all 688 routes awarded so far become operational.
The government has promised to provide air travel in affordable price for the common person and give subsidy lowering tax rates, waiver of airport charges and alternative concessions to airlines for cheaper Air Tickets.
In the 1st round of UDAN bidding, the govt. in March 2017 awarded 128 routes to 5 airlines for 43 un-served destinations. As several as 325 routes were awarded to 15 choose airline operators in January 2018 under RCS-2. The Civil Aviation Ministry in January awarded 235 routes comprising 189 routes underneath the RCS and 46 tourism routes across 29 states within the country to airlines under the third part of the scheme.
“These are initial years. Any scheme takes time. Once the fleet expansion of airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet takes place, I believe loads a lot of action would be happening on regional routes,” said Rajan Mehra, CEO, Club One Air and former India head of Qatar Airways.