ASSAM LACKED IN RESOURCE FOR OVERSEAS UDAN PLAN SCHEME

The Udan Plan scheme for international operations is under consideration for lack of resource constraints.

The State government seeked the Civil Aviation Ministry to introduce a policy on the lines of its regional connectivity scheme to connect Assam with South East Asian Countries and also to offer a sum of Rs 1 billion with incentive to add in airlines to support this efforts. However the plan has received lukewarm response from the airlines.

Druk Air of Bhutan is the only airline to offer International flights to Guwahati. The flight operates bi-weekly from Paro to Bangkok via Guwahati. Last year a total International traffic from Guwahati was little over 90,000 which is equivalent to around 250 daily passengers. Dubai, Bangkok, Paro, Muscat and Doha are the top destinations from Guwahati. National carrier Air India which has the largest share in the International flights is unable to deliver overseas routes from Guwahati due to lack of resource constraints.

A few airlines including AirAsia India, Flydubai and Novoair of Bangladesh have expressed interest in launching foreign services from Guwahati. But these airlines would not be able to launch services unless there is a change in norms and revision in air service agreements between India-Dubai and India-Bangladesh. A proper amount of resource need to provide to make the Udan Scheme successful.