John Wilbert & Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Feb 04: There is good news for the islanders, especially for those who regularly travel to remote islands and are mostly dependent on the schedules of Ship as very soon the Civil Aviation Department of Andaman Nicobar Administration will implement the ‘UDAAN’ Scheme in these Islands, which would connect remote Islands like Port Blair to Nicobar, Campbell bay and Diglipur Shivpur by air.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha recently, Mr Sanjeev Khirwar Secretary Civil Aviation said that first and second round bidding for implementing ‘UDAAN’ Scheme is completed and the Civil Aviation Department is putting all its efforts to complete the third round of bidding by May or June.
It is learnt that if in third bidding, any airline joins then in the Beginning of January 2019 we could start UDAAN scheme in our Islands. Route of UDAAN Scheme will be Port Blair to Car Nicobar, Campbell Bay and Port Blair to Shivpur, Diglipur.
The Scheme service will be implemented via operation of Seaplanes, helicopters and aeroplanes, Mr Khirwar added.
Sources added that for the fixed-wing aircraft there is a cap of maximum fare of INR 2,500 per hour of flight for the 50% of the seats.
The scheme entails making the routes financially viable, without insisting on the financial viability of the regional airports, by lowering the cost of flight operations and through VGF. VGF will be available to flight operators on specific routes for the first 3 years of their operation.
Mr. Khirwar said that to make the routes viable for commercial airlines, the union government has offered flexible code sharing arrangements, reduced excise on value-added tax on fuel and service tax, Airports, some owned by the Airports Authority of India and others by the respective state governments, will not charge the landing and parking charges and terminal navigation landing charges.
