The Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Jayant Sinha)
(a): The salient features of the scheme are as under:;
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i. The Regional Connectivity Scheme -UDAN intends to enable air operations on unserved routes connecting regional areas, promote balanced regional growth and make flying affordable for masses.;
ii. Financial incentives in terms of concessions from Central, State Governments and airport operators are extended to Selected Airline Operators to encourage operations from unserved/underserved airports/heliports and to keep the fare affordable.
iii.Support to the Selected Airline Operator in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF). Provision of a 20% share towards VGF for respective RCS Routes pertaining to the State whereas the share of States in the North-Eastern region of India and Union Territories would be 10%.;
iv. Excise Duty at the rate of 2% shall be levied on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) drawn by Selected Airline Operators at RCS Airports for RCS Flights for a period of three (3) years from the date of notification of this Scheme.
v.The airlines are required to commit around 50% of the seats as RCS seats (limited to 40 seats) on RCS flights.
vi. Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF) is created by levying Rs.5000/- on each departure of flights on aircraft having MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight) above 40 Tonne except the route, North East Region, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Uttarakhand, Andman Nicobar & Lakshyadweep Islands.
vii.For balanced regional growth, the allocations will be spread equitably across five regions in the country viz. North, South, East, West and North East with a cap of 30%.
viii.RCS-UDAN is market driven mechanism. Development of regional air connectivity routes is proposed to be left to market forces such that airlines undertake assessment of demand and nature of supply required on particular routes and lead the process of bidding under RCS.
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Airports Authority of India, the Implementing Agency, in the 1st Round of Bidding has awarded 27 proposals to five Selected Airline Operators to operate RCS flight from 43 RCS airports (12 underserved & 31 unserved) . In 2nd Round of Bidding,15 Selected Airline Operators have been awarded 88 proposals (65 with Fixed Wing & 23 with Helicopter) to operate RCS flights from/to 30 {25 unserved & 5 underserved (distinct)} airports.The RCS flight operations from 30 airports have been commenced so far. The list of these airports are as under:;
Underserved airports: Agra, Bhavnagar, Diu, Gwalior, Kadapa, Jamnagar, Pondicherry, Shillong, Porbandar, Allahabad, Hubli, Tezpur.;
Unserved airports: Adampur, Bhatinda, Bikaner, Jagdalpur,Jalgaon , Jaisalmer, Kandla, Kanpur, Kolhapur, Ludhiana, Mundra, Mysore, Nanded, Ozar(Nasik), Pathankot, Salem, Shimla, Vidyanagar;;
(b) & (c): Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UDAN was launched by Government of India to promote Regional Air Connectivity of the country by connecting the un-served and under-served airports / airstrips of the country. Construction of New / Greenfield airports is not covered under the provision of RCS-UDAN. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal for revival of 50 existing un-served / under-served airports / airstrips of the State Governments, Airports Authority of India and Civil enclaves at an estimated cost of Rs. 4500 crores, in three financial years starting from 2017-18. However, the revival of these unserved/underserved airports will be ''demand driven'', depending upon firm commitment from airline operators as well as from the State Government for providing various concessions. The list of cities including the State of Gujarat is at Annexure-I.
(d): There are 18 unserved airports from where operations have been started under RCS-UDAN.;;
(e): Under RCS-UDAN, flight operations have been started from Shillong and Tezpur airport of North East Region.;
(f): The details of the RCS Networks/proposals operationalised of first and second round of biddings are at Annexure-II.
(g): The details of the underserved and unserved including heliports awarded in the 2nd round of bidding of RCS-UDAN is attached as Annexure-III.
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