UDAN Scheme Awarded Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration

The UDAN (UdeDeshKaAamNagrik) scheme introduced by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration. Through UDAN, the MoCA aims to encourage trade and tourism from tier-2 and tier-3 cities of the country as well. It is a regional connectivity scheme that has boosted air travel in the nation. UDAN was launched back in 2016 and in such a short span has connected 67 underserved/regional airports in the country. According to a statement from the ministry, over 92 lakh people have benefitted from the scheme. The award given to the MoCA consists of Rs 10 lakh, a trophy, and a scroll. 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 the local population. The scheme also led to the 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 a 5% incremental growth in the domestic passenger share of non-metro airports. The Ministry of Civil Aviation plans and commits to construct 100 new airports by 2024 in India with 1,000 new routes under the UDAN RCS scheme by the year 2026. Recently, the Ministry of Civil Aviation 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 (UdeDeshKaAamNagrik) as its central theme.