Over 130 lakh people have availed benefits of UDAN scheme: Centre

The Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) seeks to stimulate regional air connectivity at affordable rates for the masses. General (Dr) VK Singh (Retd), Minister of State, Ministry of Civil Aviation, gave details about the scheme in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

New Delhi: The Centre on Monday informed in the Rajya Sabha that under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), which seeks to stimulate regional air connectivity at affordable rates for the masses, a total of Rs 4,500 crores have been allocated for the development of airports in the country, out of which Rs 3,751 crores have been utilized since the inception of the scheme.

This information came in as a written response from General (Dr) VK Singh (Retd), Minister of State, Ministry of Civil Aviation while replying to a question from AIADMK MP R. Dharmar, who enquired the details of the funds sanctioned, allocated and utilized under this scheme during the last three years and the current year across the country including Tamil Nadu.

"Viability Gap Funding (VGF) amounting to Rs 3,020 crores has been disbursed to the selected airline operators as of 28 November 2023. Out of Rs 97.88 crore sanctioned to develop the airports in the state of Tamil Nadu, an expenditure of Rs 94.51 crore has been incurred so far", the MoS said in his reply.

On details of the target set and achievements made so far along with its response within the country, VK Singh replied that "Under the UDAN scheme, the government has set a target to operationalise 1000 UDAN routes during the currency of the scheme and to revive/develop 100 unserved and underserved airports/heliports/water aerodromes in the country by 2024 for operation of UDAN flights. 517 RCS routes have so far commenced operations connecting 76 airports, including 9 heliports and 2 water aerodromes. More than 130 lakh people have availed of the benefits of the scheme so far."

To a question on whether the government has planned to revive additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes and advanced landing grounds for improving regional air connectivity within the country, VK Singh added, "An amount of Rs 1000 crore has been allocated under Phase II of the scheme during the period 2023-26 for development and operationalization of 50 new airports/heliports/water aerodromes in the country, including Tamil Nadu."