UDAN 4.0: 78 new routes for affordable flights added. Details here

A total of 78 additional routes has been approved under the fourth round of regional connectivity schemee—Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagarik (UDAN), Civil Aviation Ministry said today. Under the Udan scheme, financial incentives from the Centre, state governments and airport operators are extended to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports, and keep airfares affordable.

"Following 3 successful rounds of bidding, Civil Aviation Ministry has approved 78 new routes under 4th round of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - UdeDeshKaAamNagrik (UDAN) to further enhance the connectivity to remote & regional areas of the country," news agency ANI said in a tweet.

Some of the 78 routes are:

Guwahati to Tezu

Tezu to Imphal

Rupsi to Kolkata

Bhopla to Bilaspur

Chandigarh to Hissar

Dehradun to Hissar

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter, "UDAN 4.0 is ready to go. Seventy-eight additional routes have now been approved, taking the total number of sanctioned routes to 766."

"Eighteen unserved/underserved airports would be connected to metro cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi, etc," he added.

To improve regional connectivity, the Narendra Modi government had launched the UDAN scheme in 2016.

At least half of the seats in Udan flights are offered at subsidised fares, and the participating carriers are provided a certain amount of viability gap funding (VGF) - an amount shared between the Centre and the state concerned.