UDAN Scheme

In News 

Recently ,Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik(UDAN )Scheme has been selected for Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2020 under the category “Innovation (General) – Central”.

• Government of India has initiated this award to acknowledge, recognize and reward extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts and Organisations of State/Government. 

About UDAN Scheme

• It is the flagship Regional Connectivity Scheme  of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) .
• Launched in 2016.
• It aims to fulfil the aspirations of the common man by following the vision of UdeDeshkaAamNagrik,with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and III cities.
• The objective of the UDAN Scheme is to connect small and medium cities with big cities through air service.
• Progress :
  •  In a short span of 5 years, today 415 UDAN routes connect 66 underserved/unserved airports, including heliports and water aerodromes, and over 92 lakh people have benefited from it. 
  • More than 1 lakh 79 thousand flights have flown under this scheme.
  • UDAN scheme has immensely benefited several sectors pan-India including Hilly States, North-Eastern region, and Islands
  • The scheme also led to development of new GreenField Airports such as Pakyong near Gangtok in Sikkim, Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. 
    • The scheme also led to 5% incremental growth in domestic passenger share of non-metro airports.
• Targets :
  • The Ministry of Civil Aviation plans and commits to construct 100 new airports by 2024 in India with 1,000 new routes under UDAN RCS scheme by the year 2026.

Source:PIB