Udan: India became the world’s third largest domestic civil aviation market after China and America in Amritkal
India is also flying high in the civil aviation sector during the Amrit period. The country is the world’s third largest domestic civil aviation market after China and the US. Now the number of domestic passengers in the country has more than doubled to 145 million as against only 60 million in 2014. Similarly, the number of international air passengers has also increased significantly and in 2014 this number was only 23 million which has now increased to more than 35 million.
Apart from this, now air flying is not a luxury, but now middle class people consider it as an essential service, as it has also become affordable. Without a doubt, the UDAN scheme has single-handedly democratized India’s civil aviation sector by adding lakhs of first-time flyers. Seeing this dream in the beginning, Prime Minister Modi had said that now air travel will be done by slippers. Apart from this, this sector is providing employment and business opportunities along with giving benefits to the people in all parts of the country.
After the stupendous success of the UDAN scheme, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has now launched the 5th round of the Regional Connectivity Scheme- UDAN. It has achieved stupendous success 5 years after starting its maiden flight on 27th April 2017. The new initiative aims to further enhance connectivity to remote and regional areas of the country and achieve last mile connectivity.
In the last five years, UDAN has significantly increased regional air-connectivity. There were 74 operational airports in 2014, now this number has increased to 141. 68 underscored destinations which include 58 airports, 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes are also connected under the scheme. With 425 new routes, UDAN has provided air connectivity to more than 29 states, covering the length and breadth of the country. More than one crore passengers have taken advantage of this scheme.
Further, under the UDAN scheme, 220 destinations with 1000 routes are targeted to be completed by 2026 to provide air connectivity to unconnected destinations in the country. 954 routes have already been awarded to connect 156 airports. No doubt, the success of UDAN is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to the vision of ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik’, playing a major role in the transformation of the aviation industry. The government expects that in the coming 3-4 years, 400 million passengers will come to India through civil aviation.
Now, UDAN 5.0 is the new and stronger version of the old plan to bring people closer to the target of operationalizing 1000 routes and 50 additional airports, heliports and water aerodromes in the near future, adding new routes and ensuring the pace of people Is.
The key features of UDAN 5.0 are even more attractive. The new round of UDAN focuses on Category-2 which includes 20-80 seats and Category-3 which includes less than 80 seats. The earlier stage length cap of 600 km has also been waived, and now there is no restriction on the distance between the origin and destination of the flight.
The same route will not be awarded to the same airline more than once. There are also many other things that make the new plan more efficient. Now, the day is not far when rail transport and road transport will become the hub of transportation in India along with civil aviation.
