GUWAHATI: Government’s flagship regional connectivity scheme, UDAAN, which stands for “Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik” is failing. The scheme, which was launched in 2017 had aimed to put smaller cities on India’s air map by aid of fiscal incentives, infrastructure support, procedural simplifications and monetary subsidies.
The northeastern region, which has some of the worst roads in the country and a broken railway network, was supposed to be a prime region that was expected to benefit from this initiative.
According to an article by Scroll India, from February 10, the direct flight from Guwahati to Mizoram capital, Aizawl will be taken off air. While it used to take less than an hour to make this journey, after the shut down of this route, it could take almost a day to make the journey by air, with layovers in either Delhi or Kolkata, or maybe both cities in some cases.
Travelling by railways is not an option as no railway link exists between these two cities and even if traveling by road, it could take upto 15 hours because of the 470 km distance and broken parts of the highway.
According to an existing airline schedule, on February 10 the shortest flight time between Guwahati and Aizawl, which is separated by an aerial distance of 280 km will become over 16 hours.
While the decision to terminate this flight comes because of Jet Airway’s decision to suspend all operations in the northeastern region because of its financial woes, it is a big setback in regards to air connectivity within the region. The shutdown of this route cements the lack of change and turnaround as promised by the Modi government.
The second leg of the scheme was launched in November 2017 and the Ministry of Civil Aviation had announced the opening of 92 new air routes in this region. However, only six airports were opened in Assam and 2 in Arunachal Pradesh and 4 others across the northeast. Out of these 12, only two are currently operational.
Some aviation sector analysts have said that this scheme is falling apart because it was addressed more towards garnering political favours rather than actually enhancing connectivity in the northeastern region and across the country.
Read More: Jet Airways withdraws flights from Jorhat, Silchar, Aizawl and Imphal