Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has revealed that his ministry has set a target of operationalising 100 unserved and underserved airports and starting at least 1,000 air routes under the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme. The minister has also added that privatisation is required in the field of aviation, as it is not the government’s specialisation to run airports.

Addressing a press conference in Raipur recently, Mr Puri informed that domestic flight services from Bilaspur town in Chhattisgarh will begin from March 1 under the regional connectivity scheme, which is also called UDAN. “Fifty-six airports have already been upgraded and over 700 routes awarded, of which air service has commenced on 311 routes under the UDAN scheme since it was launched in 2017 with a budget of Rs 4,500 crore,” Mr Puri has said.

Mr Puri has assured that the process of privatisation of Air India will be carried out transparently through open bidding. At present, Air India has an accumulated debt of Rs 60,000 crore, and the process of its privatisation is underway since long. But it will be the NDA government that is going to properly materialise it, Mr Puri has added. “Privatisation is required, as it is not the government’s specialisation to run airports. Although there are several airports which are being successfully run, when private capital enters, the activities increase manifold,” Mr Puri has said.