About 50 new routes under the government’s ambitious plan to link smaller towns and cities to the wider air travel network through the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) will be operational by November-end, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Thursday.
Scindia announced a 100-day plan for the country’s civil aviation sector, including policy measures and development of airports as well as heliports. The plan would focus on 16 areas.
Addressing a press conference here, Scindia said the plan has been prepared after “combined consultations”. Out of the 16 areas, 8 relate to policy and 4 pertain to reforms.
“We have a 100-day plan for the Ministry on the basis of which we’ll be answerable to the stakeholders transparently. Under this 100-day target, we have three main foundations – 1) infrastructure, 2) policy targets and 3) reforms initiative,” Scindia said.
Among others, six heliports would be developed in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand under the regional air connectivity scheme UDAN. These heliports will come at Sanjoli (Shimla), Sase (Manali), Mandi and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, and Haldwani & Almora in Uttarakhand.
Among 50 routes under RCS 30 will be operational by October-end, and will be operated by airlines like Alliance Air, which will operate on six new RCS routes, IndiGo (4), Big Charter Private Limited (8), SpiceJet (4) and StarAir (8), Scindia added.
Government also hopes to operationalize five new airports under the RCS. These include Keshod (Gujarat), Deogarh (Jharkhand), Gondia (Maharashtra), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), and Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh) that are to be operationalized in the coming days.
A new policy for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities has also been announced.
The civil aviation sector has been adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and is slowly coming on the recovery path.
The government is also planning to update the existing AirSewa application, where air passengers can seek addressal of their grievances. The new AirSewa 3.0 is planned to go-live by 30 Sep 2021 and will enable users to escalate their issues to dedicated officials if they are not satisfied with the resolution provided by nodal officers at airlines and airports.