India seeks to extend UDAN scheme to BIMSTEC countries

In a bid to boost its engagement with BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), India is looking to expand the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik or 'common people of the country can fly') scheme of its aviation policy to countries of this regional bloc, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said on Tuesday.

"What the government of India would like to see is that we can take the policy design behind UDAN and extend it across the BIMSTEC region," Sinha said while speaking at an event here to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of BIMSTEC.

"So if we can link Pakyong (greenfield airport in Sikkim), there is no reason why we can't link an airport in Bhutan or an airport in Myanmar in the same fashion," he said.

Tuesday's event served as a curtain-raiser for a conference on "BIMSTEC: An Enabling Architecture for Growth, Prosperity and Partnerships" organised by industry body Ficci and India Foundation with the support of the external affairs ministry and the state government of Assam in Guwahati from November 2 to 4 this year.

BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Its main objective is technical and economic cooperation among south Asian and southeast Asian countries along the rim of the Bay of Bengal.

With SAARC(South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) virtually rendered ineffective as a bloc, largely due to non-cooperation on the part of Pakistan in a number of areas, India has been giving more importance to BIMSTEC in recent times.

The UDAN scheme is a key component of the National Civil Aviation Policy launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in June last year. Its focus is on regional airport development and connectivity and making air travel affordable.

The first flight under UDAN took place in April when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a New Delhi-Shimla flight.

Sinha said that to make the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean the real power centre of the region, the BIMSTEC countries would have to work together.

"Trade and business and commerce are really going to be the engine that are going to be able to drive prosperity and closer collaboration and linkages across the BIMSTEC countries," he said.

Stating that to strengthen trade and business, connectivity was vital, he said: "As far as India is concerned we have poured tremendous resources to both road and rail linkages."

He said that the government was working on expanding road linkages not only in northeast India - seen as the hub for India's engagements with BIMSTEC - but also to Myanmar and on to Thailand.

He said that the government was pushing for broad gauge rail tracks across the northeast and was opening up trade connectivity to Bangladesh. Work was also underway to develop waterways, including one on the Brahmaputra river to Bangladesh.

However, for high value economic progress through business and tourism, aviation was very important, he said.

Sinha said the conference in Guwahati would look at the possibilities of having an open skies policy between the BIMSTEC countries.