7) India is the world’s fastest growing domestic aviation market and regional connectivity is critical if this high growth is to be sustained. In this context, discuss the achievements of UDAN-RCS and the challenges lying in front of it.(250 words)

Topic– Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

7) India is the world’s fastest growing domestic aviation market and regional connectivity is critical if this high growth is to be sustained. In this context, discuss the achievements of UDAN-RCS and the challenges lying in front of it.(250 words)

Yojana Magazine, July 2018 issue.

Reference

Why this question

UDAN Regional Connectivity Scheme has been quite successful in improving regional connectivity in India, which fares very poor compared to the metropolitan connectivity. It is therefore essential to underline the achievements of the scheme as well as the challenges faced by it.

Directive word

Discuss- This is an all-encompassing directive which mandates us to write in detail about the key demand of the question. We also have to discuss about the related and important aspects of the question in order to bring out a complete picture of the issue in hand.

Key demand of the question.

The question wants us to write in detail about the achievements of the UDAN-RCS and what are the challenges lying ahead of it.

Structure of the answer

Introduction– Write a few lines about the concentration of most of the air-traffic in India at metropolitan airports and write a few lines about the UDAN-RCS- e.g launched in 2017; its aim is to “enhance regional connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development” etc.

Body-

1. Discuss the achievements of the scheme. E.g After two rounds of UDAN bidding, routes from following Airports/ Heliports awarded ; • Unserved Airports 56 • Underserved Airports 17 • Heliports 31 ; Till date RCS operations from 30 Airports have been commenced etc.
2. Discuss the challenges lying ahead. E.g Not all the underserved and unserved airports which were envisaged to become operational have been revived; all the routes for which Airlines had placed their bids have not been started and there is operationally no helicopter service yet; some of the airlines which have participated in the bidding under the  scheme have little previous experience or short on funding and seem to be struggling with the economics and logistics of offering connectivity from remote locations; new number of occupied seats on some routes along with high cancellation rates; till now there has been no scheduled helicopter services anywhere in the country so norms have to be laid down from scratch; soaring oil prices and only a three-year window of viability gap funding available to operators etc.

Conclusion– sum up your discussion in a few lines and form a fair and a balanced conclusion on the above issue.