Ministry of Civil Aviation: Bids for 30 Airports and Airstrips in Northeast

GUWAHATI: With an aim to boost air connectivity, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has invited bids for six underserved and 24 unserved airports and airstrips in the north-eastern region.

The development is part of the fourth round of bidding under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) or regional air connectivity scheme commenced on December 3. UDAN seeks to connect unserved and underserved airports as well as makes flying more affordable. Underserved airports are those where there is not enough airline service—either not enough capacity, not enough destinations, or both. Unserved airports are those where there is no scheduled airline service.

A communiqué issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Friday says that the underserved airports and airstrips are situated in Passighat and Tezu (Arunachal Pradesh), Jorhat, Rupsi and Tezpur (Assam), and Shillong (Meghalaya).

As per the communiqué, there are 24 underserved aerodromes in the region spreading across Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. These are Alinya, Along, Daparizo, Mechuka, Tuting, Vijaynagar, Walong, Yinghiong and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh. While Chabua, Darrang, Dinjan, Ledo, Misa Mari, Nazira, Sadiya, Sorbhog, Sukerating (Doomdooma) are in Assam, Dwara, Shella and Tura in Meghalaya, and Kailashahar, Kamalpur and Khowai in Tripura. The MoCA aims to operationalize 1,000 routes and more than 100 airports in the next five years.

The MoCA has also invited bids for a water aerodrome at Umrangso Reservoir in Assam.

Under the fourth bidding of UDAN, the MoCA is also providing additional Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of around 25% to the airlines. The ministry will bear 90% of VGF and remaining 10% by North East State governments. (PIB)

Also Read: Airports Authority of India organized Workshop on Equality of Transgender

Also Watch: 14th Foundation Day celebration of Central Institute of Technology (CIT) held in Kokrajhar