(a) the name of the 78 new air routes approved under the UDAN scheme;
(b) whether Sarnath, Kushinagar, Siddharth Nagar under Buddhist circuit have been included under the said scheme;
(c) if so, the time by which these routes are likely to be made operational; and
(d) if not, whether the Government has any plan to link Buddhist circuit with air routes?
The Minister of State (IC) in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Hardeep Singh Puri)
(a) to (d): Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Implementing Agency is in the process of awarding 78 routes identified in 1st phase of bidding received under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) version 4.0. RCS-UDAN is a market driven scheme. The interested airlines based on their assessment of demand on particular routes submit their proposals at the time of bidding under RCS - UDAN from time to time. After four rounds of bidding under RCS-UDAN, the Implementing Agency has awarded RCS routes connecting Shravasti, Kushinagar, Gaya, Varanasi of Buddhist circuit to Selected Airline Operators (SAOs). The SAOs are obligated to commence RCS flight operations on a RCS-route, as part of individual route-proposal or a network proposal within a period of 180 days from the issuance of Letter of Award or within two months from the readiness of airport, whichever is later, unless any extension is granted by the Implementing Agency.