Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik, known by UDAN-RCS, is a regional airport development programme of the Government of India and part of the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of improving air connectivity to the remote and unserved areas of the country, with the aim of making airways available for the common people .The Regional Connectivity Scheme-Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) was launched in 2016.
The Government on Monday informed the Rajya Sabha that two airports and nine helipads have been identified in Himachal Pradesh for operating flights under the UDAN scheme, providing air connectivity to remote areas.
“I am very thankful to the finance minister, who, in the last budget, only announced that the UDAN is going to be extended. And the specific things that were mentioned was 120 new destinations are going to be established in the coming 10 years. Especially the hilly terrain, the north eastern states, the Himalayan states are going to be given a priority in establishing regional connectivity,” the minister said
During Question Hour, Union Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said, “UDAN scheme has revolutionised the Indian civil aviation sector, and we were able to extend the connectivity to regional remote areas, especially the areas of tier two and tier three cities, where we were able to establish the airports, but the connectivity was still a challenge”.
Through this scheme, he said, the Government has been able to operationalise 657 routes, and 1.59 crore passengers have travelled in these routes.
“And Himachal has been a great beneficiary of this. We have established nine locations where the helipads are going to be there,” the minister further said.
The Government has extended the UDAN not only to create airports, but to create helipads and heliports also.
