{"id":111434,"date":"2026-07-05T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=111434"},"modified":"2026-07-05T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:44:09","slug":"modified-udan-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/modified-udan-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Modified UDAN Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Modified UDAN Scheme Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Prime Minister recently inaugurated the new terminal building at Jodhpur airport and launched the modified UDAN Scheme.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Modified UDAN Scheme<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With an <\/span><b>allocation <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of<\/span><b> Rs 28,840 crore over the next 10 years,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the scheme aims to accelerate the next phase of aviation-led development.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A<\/span><b> key emphasis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is on the <\/span><b>development of 100 aerodromes from existing unserved airstrips,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> supported by an <\/span><b>outlay of over Rs 12,000 crore<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, to expand aviation infrastructure across the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Over Rs 2,500 crore<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been earmarked for <\/span><b>Operations and Maintenance (O&amp;M) support <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><b>ensure the viability of regional airports <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">during their initial years of operation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, an investment of \u20b93,661 crore will fund the<\/span><b> creation of 200 modern helipads<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and a <\/span><b>continued Viability Gap Funding of \u20b910,043 crore for airlines<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to sustain regional airline operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scheme<\/span><b> promotes the induction of indigenous aircraft and helicopters, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">including HAL Dhruv and Dornier platforms, f<\/span><b>or operations in underserved and remote regions.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>About UDAN Scheme<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (<a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/udan-scheme-upsc\/\" target=\"_blank\">UDAN<\/a>)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> scheme is a <\/span><b>Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) launched <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in October <\/span><b>2016 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by the Government of India to<\/span><b> enhance air connectivity to underserved and unserved regions.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Objectives:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Improve regional connectivity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> across<\/span><b> Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Make air travel affordable<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for common citizens.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Promote balanced regional development.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enhance the <\/span><b>infrastructure utilisation of unused and underutilised airports.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>The mission has two parts.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First,<\/span><b> make air travel affordable on short regional sectors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where train journeys take 10-18 hours.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second, <\/span><b>revive unserved and underserved airports<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 places that had runways but no scheduled commercial flights.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>first UDAN flight <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">took off on 27 April <\/span><b>2017<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, connecting <\/span><b>Shimla to Delhi.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Key Features:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Airlines <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are<\/span><b> selected through a competitive bidding<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mechanism.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Viability Gap Funding (VGF)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is provided <\/span><b>to airlines to operate on less profitable routes.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Airports Authority of India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has also<\/span><b> waived off the airport fee<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the same.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time, the <\/span><b>state governments <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are also <\/span><b>providing security, electricity, and fire-fighting facilities free of cost.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>50% of seats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are offered at a <\/span><b>capped fare of around Rs. 2,500 per hour of flight.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Focus on connecting remote, hilly, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and island regions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Funding Mechanism:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Initially <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">funded through a<\/span><b> Regional Connectivity Scheme levy imposed on flights <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">operating on major routes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The levy subsidised airlines operating on regional routes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> Ministry of Civil Aviation runs it through the Airports Authority of India (AAI)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which acts as the implementing agency for bidding, monitoring, and viability gap funding payouts to airlines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Phase-by-phase Summary:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UDAN 1.0 (2017): <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">128 routes awarded; first commercial flight Delhi\u2013Shimla.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UDAN 2.0 (2018): added priority areas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including the <\/span><b>North-East, hill states, islands; helicopter routes introduced.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UDAN 3.0 (2018-19):<\/b> <b>tourism-focused routes, seaplane operations,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and select international connectivity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UDAN 4.0 (2020): <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">further expansion to remote areas and <\/span><b>water aerodromes, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">longer stage length allowed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UDAN 5.0 onwards:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stage length raised to enable longer regional links; relaxation of viability period rules; <\/span><b>helicopter and small-aircraft sub-schemes (Sagarmala Seaplane, Krishi UDAN, etc.)<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/rajasthan\/pm-modi-inaugurates-new-jodhpur-airport-terminal-launches-modified-udan-scheme\/article71181992.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Modified UDAN Scheme, with a \u20b928,840 crore outlay over 10 years, aims to boost regional connectivity and aviation-led development. Read more about Modified UDAN Scheme, Key Features, Funding, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":111453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8512,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-111434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-modified-udan-scheme","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111434"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111454,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111434\/revisions\/111454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}