UDAN’s flights of fancy

That there was so much of hot air about UDAN has been exposed by the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) tabled in the Parliament session that concluded recently.

The report is telltale evidence of the exaggeration and fakery deployed by the ministers of Mr Narendra Modi government in claiming success of the UDAN scheme in bringing about the regional air connectivity during the last six years since the scheme was launched in 2017.

UDAN, acronym for Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik in Hindi, was launched in 2017 under the National Civil Aviation Policy formulated in 2016.

It was aimed at enhancing regional air connectivity through fiscal support and infrastructure development.

The Ministry launched it under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) with the objective of promoting affordability of regional air-connectivity through a series of measures.

Surprisingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often bragged about the success of the scheme during his second tenure of rule even while castigating the previous governments of failing to measure up to the aspirations of the aam naagrik (common citizens) to fly.

But as could be learnt through the CAG report, as well as reply to a Lok Sabha query by the Civil Aviation Ministry and the RTIs, of the 74 airports claimed to have been built during the period, only 11 were built from scratch while another 15 fell in disuse due to cancellation of operation by the airlines.

Included among these 15 are Sikkim’s Pakyong, Adampur and Ludhiana in Punjab. The CAG report says, up to UDAN-3, out of the 139 airports, heliports and water aerodromes identified for revival or development, 83 airports, heliports or water aerodromes were unutilized or underutilised as on March 2023 either due to dis-continuance of flights or non-commencement of operations.

The two waterdromes built in Gandhinagar and Kevadia, the site of the tallest statue (of Sardar Patel), were junked immediately after Mr. Modi had inaugurated them in October 2020.

Similar has been the fate of the air services. Upto UDAN3, 52 per cent, (403 out of 774 routes) of the awarded routes could not commence operations.

Furthermore, the 371 routes on which the flights commenced, only 112 routes (30 per cent) completed the full concession period of three years.

Out of these 112 routes, only 54 routes (i.e., 7 per cent) connecting 17 RCS airports could sustain the operation beyond the 3-year concession period, as of March 2023.

As many as 97 routes shut down after completing the 3-year period during which the government provided the support.

In the final analysis, out of the 774 routes awarded upto UDAN-3, only 54 or 7 per cent have proved to be sustainable during the 3-5 years.

This being the end outcome, it is worth asking if air travel can be the sustainable mode of travelling to tier-II and tier-III cities in an India where people can barely afford high cost of living. This being the sad reality, the future of the expensive infrastructure such as airports, landing equipment and connecting roads could be imagined.

It is also illustrative of the Modi Government’s priorities and the tendency to succumb to glitz and glamour of the fanciful projects rather than addressing the bread and butter issues of the masses.