Small Aircraft Scheme to Have Strengthened Connectivity in Tier 2 and 3 Cities: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Daily flight between the Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad route under RCS-UDAN scheme was flagged-off today. Fly Big was awarded the route under the UDAN RCS-4.0 bidding process. With this, 409 routes would be operationalized under the UDAN-RCS scheme.

The inaugural event was graced by Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Mr Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister, MP(virtually), Smt Sumitra Mahajan, Former Speakar, Lok Sabha, Mr. Shankar Lalwani, Member of Parliament, Indore,  Ms. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA, and many other dignitaries. Mr. Sunil Mendhe, Member of Parliament, Gondia, Mr. Ashok Nete, Member of Parliament, Gadchiroli and Mr Dhal Singh Bisen, Member of Parliament, Balaghat also joined the event virtually.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said that the UDAN scheme is fulfilling the Prime Minister's dream of providing air services to the common man. Under UDAN, 405 routes have already been made operational. The Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad route will connect Indore with the two states  Maharashtra and Telangana.

In the last one year, the aircraft operation from Indore has doubled while in Bhopal it has increased by 40 percent. Mr Scindia said that 100 new airports will be built in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which will give a further boost to last mile connectivity. He said that the central government is going to bring Small Aircraft Scheme, which will further strengthen connectivity in tier 2 and 3 cities.

The airline will operate one daily flight everyday & will deploy it’s ATR 72, 78-seater turbo prop aircraft designed for shorter distance flights on the route. With this, Gondia will become their 14^th UDAN destination and Fly Big is the first airline to connect Gondia with a scheduled commercial flight to other metro cities. This is also the first flight route for Gondia as prior to this it was not connected with any airports in India.

Birsi airport in Gondia was established as a domestic airport which is owned and operated by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and it is located at Birsi Village, 12 km northeast of Gondia, Maharashtra. MoCA has invested Rs 21 crore in the airport for re-carpeting of runway, procurement of Aircraft Crash Fire Tenders (ACFTs) and other equipment to operationalise the airport.

With the new flight route, people of Gondia and its adjoining areas will get direct air connectivity between Indore, Gondia and Hyderabad which will facilitate seamless movement of passengers between Indore, Gondia, Hyderabad and vice-versa under UDAN. With these new flights under UDAN, common people will get multiple options to travel between these places which will boost the tourism potential and increase the economic activity of this region.

The Flight schedule is as below: