AAI receives 111 initial proposals for UDAN-3

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has received 111 initial proposals and 17 counter proposals from 15 bidders covering more than 350 routes in the round 3 of Ude Desh Ka Aan Naagrik (UDAN) scheme of Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Proposals connecting 13 water aerodromes and more than 40 tourism routes were also received as part of the bidding process.

UDAN 3 scheme includes the inclusion of seaplanes for connecting water aerodromes and bringing a number of routes in the North-East region under its ambit.

The inclusion of tourism routes under UDAN 3 is in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, and under the scheme 16 unserved airports, 17 underserved airports, 6 water aerodromes and 50 served airports would be connected.

The UDAN 3 will connect 235 routes comprising 189 Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) routes and 46 tourism routes across 29 states in the country.

The UDAN 3 would add another 69.30 lakh seats annually across the RCS routes with more than 1 lakh annual seats through seaplanes and more than 15 lakh annual seats on tourism routes. This is in addition to the number of seats created under UDAN 1 (13 lakh) and UDAN 2 (29 lakh).

Airports Authority of India (AAI) is the implementing agency of UDAN, regional airport development and Regional Connectivity Scheme of the Government of India (GOI). Under UDAN, air connectivity is provided to un-served and under-served airports at a subsidized fare.