Guwahati airport soon to be connected to international airports under scheme UDAN

Guwahati: Assam gets set to be connected to some of the major international airports as the Narendra Modi government has initiated the process of inviting bids from several countries under scheme UDAN. As per the scheme, bids from countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Nepal are being invited the government following which the airports in the countries are expected to be connected to the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Guwahati International Airport.

Notably, the current invitation for bidding in the second round of bids from airlines following which commercial flights will be operated between Guwahati-Yangon, Guwahati-Hanoi, Guwahati-Kuala Lumpur, and Guwahati-Kathmandu.

The notice seeking proposal has been issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on behalf of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Assam government. The invitation cites, “interested bidders for submission of e-proposals for the International Air Connectivity (IAC) routes” between Guwahati and the aforementioned four cities.

The round of bidding was conducted in 2018’s November for the initiation of international flight services from Guwahati airport to other international destinations like Bangkok, Kathmandu, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dhaka, and Yangon under the Udaan scheme. The bids made for only two of these routes worked which included the Guwahati-Bangkok and Guwahati-Dhaka routes. However, by now the Guwahati-Singapore commercial flights have also started operating.

Before this, at the beginning of the current month, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had informed the Parliament 174 routes out of the total 705 routes are operational under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)-UDAN scheme. Notably, the RCS-UDAN scheme is a flagship scheme of the Modi government which was launched on October 21, 2016. Since then, three RCS-UDAN scheme has been launched in India. The most running airlines under the central government schemes in India are IndiGo, SpiceJet and Airline Allied Services.

A maximum subsidy of Rs 2,745 per passenger and Rs 7,445 per passenger is already being provided by the Assam government on the Guwahati-Kathmandu and Guwahati-Kuala Lumpur routes. In addition to this, the government was ready to provide a subsidy of up to Rs 4,831 per passenger and Rs 4,545 per passenger for the Guwahati-Yangon and Guwahati-Hanoi routes respectively.

Also read: Guwahati Airport- Recognized as one of the Busiest Airports in the Country