New Delhi: India has close to 400 ghost airports, where not a single flights lands or takes off. Under UDAN, the ambitious regional connectivity scheme, the government claims to have sealed deals to operationalise 55 airports where there were either no landings till now or where not even seven flights landed weekly. The first round of reverse bidding for UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) saw five airlines winning bids for 108 previously unviable routes (where at least one airport is either unserved or underserved) and thereby promising to add 13 lakh concessional seats across the Indian hinterland. This scheme envisages a viability gap funding (VGF) and a raft of concessions to airlines who agree to fly to ghost airports.
In the first round of UDAN, 24 airports in the western, 17 in northern, 11 in southern, 12 in eastern and 6 in north-eastern regions are proposed to be connected across 22 states and two Union Territories. Of the 27 proposals cleared, 16 are for single routes (connecting two cities) and 11 are for networks (connecting three or more cities). Six proposals have been bid with zero viability gap funding (VGF), reflecting the fact that there is potential latent demand.
So in the first phase, Delhi should get connected to Bikaner, Indore, Jaisalmer, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Pantnagar, Pathankot, Kullu, Jalandhar and Shimla besides other tierII and tierIII towns. Mumbai to Jalgaon, Kandla, Porbandar, Sholapur, Jamnagar. Chennai to Puducherry, Neyveli, Salem, Kadapa, Vijaywada. Bhubaneshwar to Jharsaguda, Bilaspur, Jagdadlpur, Cooch Behar. Shillong to Dimapur, Sichar, Imphal, Agartala. And Kolkata to Jamshedpur, Aizawl and Rourkela.
UDAN: Govt moots many changes in 2nd round even as most flights still on ground in first round - Firstpost
In the first round of UDAN, 24 airports in the western, 17 in northern, 11 in southern, 12 in eastern and 6 in north-eastern regions are proposed to be connected across 22 states and two Union Territories. Of the 27 proposals cleared, 16 are for single routes (connecting two cities) and 11 are for networks (connecting three or more cities). Six proposals have been bid with zero viability gap funding (VGF), reflecting the fact that there is potential latent demand.
So in the first phase, Delhi should get connected to Bikaner, Indore, Jaisalmer, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Pantnagar, Pathankot, Kullu, Jalandhar and Shimla besides other tierII and tierIII towns. Mumbai to Jalgaon, Kandla, Porbandar, Sholapur, Jamnagar. Chennai to Puducherry, Neyveli, Salem, Kadapa, Vijaywada. Bhubaneshwar to Jharsaguda, Bilaspur, Jagdadlpur, Cooch Behar. Shillong to Dimapur, Sichar, Imphal, Agartala. And Kolkata to Jamshedpur, Aizawl and Rourkela.
UDAN: Govt moots many changes in 2nd round even as most flights still on ground in first round - Firstpost
