Around 86.05 lakh people have travelled on UDAN flights till January 9, 2022, VK Singh, the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said in a written response to the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The scheme has sparked a “significant increase” in helicopter services in hilly areas and islands through use of heliports, he added.

The UDAN or Ude Deshka Aam Nagrik Scheme was introduced on October 21, 2016 to “stimulate regional air connectivity and making air travel affordable to the masses”. Airfare and seats are capped under the scheme.

Till date, out of 948 valid routes, 403 routes involving 65 airports (that include 8 heliports and two water aerodromes) have been operationalised under the scheme.

Domestic air cargo terminals

Singh, in a separate response to the upper house said, the Airports Authority of India (AAI)/AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Limited has created 27 domestic air cargo terminals after 2014.

These terminals have come up at Amritsar, Madurai, Mangalore, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Indore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Raipur, Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Goa, Srinagar, Ranchi, Trivandrum, Guwahati, Vijayawada, Bagdogra, Jammu, Leh, Surat, Bhopal, Dehradun, Rajahmundry, Tirupati and Hubballi.

Till 2014, India had 11 domestic air cargo terminals and 19 international air cargo terminals.

In addition, there are joint ventures, public-private partnerships and State government airports which are into domestic and international air cargo terminal operations.

“Thus, the cargo handling potential has been considerably enhanced to facilitate faster movement of goods,” Singh said in his response.