UDAN 4.0: After poor response in past, Centre puts up 13 unserved airports in JKL for bidding

JAMMU: After the second and third phases of UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) evoked poor response among various air operators, the Centre has invited fresh bids for 13 unserved airports—11 airports in Union Territory of J&K and two in UT of Ladakh under the fourth round of the regional air connectivity scheme.
The scheme was initiated in 2016 to stimulate air connectivity and provides various concessions to the selected airline operators to operate routes from Centre and state governments.
Moreover, the fourth round of the scheme features revision of the VGF cap.
“Out of 10 air routes connecting Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh awarded in the second and third round of bidding to Selected Airline Operators (SAO) under RCS –UDAN, only two were commenced,” an official source told The News Now.
“The two routes which were a commenced are Jammu –Bhatinda and Jammu-Gawalior,” he said.
“Jammu- Bhatinda was awarded to operator Alliance during second round of bidding and commenced on February 27, 2018. Similarly, the second route Jammu-Gawalior was awarded to Spicejet during third round of bidding and started on 1st May 2019,” he informed.
“The other routes which were awarded during the second round of bidding UDAN but were not commenced due to non-compliance of agreement are Kargil- Srinagar and Srinagar-Kargil.
Both routes were awarded to MEHAIR airlines and canceled due to non-compliance of SAO agreement by SAO,” he said.
“Similarly, five other routes which were awarded during the third round of bidding UDAN but were not commenced due to non-compliance of agreement are Srinagar –Ambala, Jammu- Kargil, Kargil-Jammu, Srinagar- Thoise, Thoise- Chandigarh, Thoise- Srinagar.
“All the five routes were awarded to Heritage airlines but the routes were cancelled due to non compliance of SAO agreement by SAO,” he added.
Despite the poor response in 2nd and 3rd phase, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is claiming to improve air connectivity in newly created UTs in the fourth phase (4.0) the scheme.
The union ministry on December 3, has invited bids from companies to provide air services to 13 unserved airports in J&K and Ladakh.
“It has invited bids for Kargil and Thoise airports in Ladakh and Akhnoor, Chamb, Chushal, Fukche, Gurex, Jhangar, Miran Sahib, Panzgam, Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir,” an official spokesperson of Ministry said.
Besides, the ministry under UDAN 4 scheme is providing additional Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of around 25 per cent extra to airlines.
"MoCA aims to operationalise 1,000 routes and more than 100 airports in the next five years. This would be achieved by focusing on operationalising routes in priority areas," he added.
"AAI would focus on developing the no-frills airports in the future and routes connecting such airports would be prioritised for the award of VGF. The market would be incentivised to develop short-haul routes only, providing connectivity to nearby airports."
Currently, 688 routes involving 106 airports and 31 heliports have been awarded under UDAN out of which, 232 are already operational.