Infrastructure
UDAN Gets Top Billing, Selected For Prime Minister’s Award For Excellence In Public Administration 2020
Arun Kumar Das
Apr 17, 2022, 11:28 AM | Updated 11:28 AM IST
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The UDAN scheme, the Ministry of Civil Aviation's flagship initiative to provide air connectivity in non-metro tier II and III cities, has been selected for the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration 2020.
Launched in 2016, the scheme aims to fulfil the aspirations of the common person by following the vision of ude desh ka aam nagrik (UDAN), with enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and III cities.
After a short span of five years, today 415 UDAN routes connect 66 underserved/unserved airports, including heliports and water aerodromes, and over 92 lakh people have benefited from it. More than 179,000 flights have flown under this scheme.
The scheme has immensely benefited several sectors pan-India, including hilly states, the North East, and the islands.
UDAN has had 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.
Selected under the “Innovation (General) – Central” category, the scheme emphasises good governance, qualitative achievements, and last-mile connectivity rather than rely only on accomplishing quantitative targets.
The government has initiated this award to acknowledge, recognise, and reward extraordinary, innovative work done by districts and organisations of the state and the centre.
The scheme has led to the development of new green field airports such as Pakyong near Gangtok in Sikkim, Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. It has also led to 5 per cent incremental growth in domestic passenger share in non-metro airports.
The Ministry plans and commits to construct 100 new airports by 2024 in India with 1,000 new routes under UDAN RCS scheme by the year 2026.
Recently, the Ministry tableau was named as the best central ministry tableau for Republic Day 2022. The tableau of the Ministry of Civil Aviation showcased the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) — UDAN as its central theme.
The Ministry will receive the award on 21 April, the Civil Service Day. The award consists of a trophy, scroll, and an incentive of Rs 10 lakh.
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Arun Kumar Das is a senior journalist covering railways. He can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com.
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