By Staff Correspondent
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) flagship Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) has been awarded Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2020 under the category ‘Innovation (General) – Central’.
The award was given away by the Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia to the UDAN team led by Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA in presence of Secretary, MoCA, Rajiv Bansal and Chairman, Airport Authority of India (AAI), Sanjeev Kumar
Government of India has initiated this award to acknowledge, recognize and reward extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts and Organisations of State/Government. This scheme emphasises Good Governance, Qualitative achievements, and last-mile connectivity rather than only on achievement of quantitative targets. The award consists of a trophy, scroll and an incentive of Rs 10 lakhs.
Launched in 2016, the UDAN scheme aims to fulfil the aspirations of the common man by following the vision of Ude Deshka Aam Nagrik, with enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and III cities. In a short span of five years, today 419 UDAN routes connect 67 underserved/unserved airports, including heliports and water aerodromes, and over 92 lakh people have benefited from it. More than 1,79,000 flights have flown under this scheme. UDAN scheme has immensely benefitted several sectors pan-India including the Hilly States, North-Eastern region, and Islands.
UDAN has a positive impact on the economy of the country and has witnessed an excellent response from industry stakeholders especially airlines operators and state governments. More than 350 new city pairs are now scheduled to be connected under the scheme, with 200 already connected and are widely spread geographically providing connectivity across the length and breadth of the country as well as ensuring balanced regional growth resulting in economic growth and employment to local population.
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.
MoCA 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.
Recently, the MoCA tableau was named the best central ministry tableau for Republic Day 2022. The tableau of the Ministry of Civil Aviation showcased Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) as its central theme.
