New bids invited for airports in North East as part of UDAN scheme

09 Dec 2019 Editorial Team

As reported, under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme introduced by the government with the aim of creating better means of regional air connectivity, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has invited bids for six underserved and 24 unserved airports or airstrips in the North East region of India.

This comes as part of the fourth and most recent round of bidding of the scheme – which commenced on December 3. The main purpose of UDAN is to make flying more affordable while connecting unserved and underserved airports, thereby enhancing connectivity.

Apart from these bids, a water aerodrome in the region of Umrangso Reservoir in Assam has also been reportedly included.

The UDAN 4.0 scheme currently includes underserved airports at the following locations: Passighat and Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Jorhat, Rupsi and Tezpur in Assam, and Shillong in Meghalaya. While the unserved airports are also reportedly spread across the same regions and consist of: Alinya, Along, Daparizo, Mechuka, Tuting, Vijaynagar, Walong, Yinghiong and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh; Chabua, Darrang, Dinjan, Ledo, Misa Mari, Nazira, Sadiya, Sorbhog, Sukerating in Assam; Dwara, Shella and Tura in Meghalaya; and Kailashahar, Kamalpur and Khowai in Tripura.

It is also reported that the ministry has set a goal to operationalise 1,000 routes and more than 100 airports in the coming five years.

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