RUNWAYS TO NOWHERE

INDIA'S REGIONAL AVIATION DREAM WAS MEANT TO DEMOCRATISE THE SKIES. INSTEAD, IDLE RUNWAYS AND VANISHED AIRLINES REVEAL A SOBERING REALITY OF MONUMENTS TO AMBITION STALLED MID-FLIGHT

- By Avishek G. Dastidar

THE AIRPORT TERMINAL AT BHAVNAGAR IN GUJARAT looks freshly painted, but the air inside smells stale. Rows of plastic chairs are stacked in a corner. The baggage scanner, unplugged and dusty, stands like a relic from a different time. No planes have taken off or landed here for months.

It's a story that repeats itself in several of the 93 airports, including heliports and water aerodromes—part of the Udan or the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik scheme the Modi government had launched in 2016, with the intention of making flying accessible to the common citizen and connecting small-town India through affordable air routes. Investment had followed intent, with more than Rs 4,638 crore spent on developing and reviving these airports over multiple phases.

The number of airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has more than doubled to 163, from about 70 in 2014-15. The government claims to have operationalised 649 Udan routes. But the early optimism has dimmed. Of the 93 Udan airports, the AAI officially counts 20 as 'nonoperational', while many others across the country remain stalled.

So, at Vellore in Tamil Nadu, the terminal stands ready, but the runway still falls short of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norms. In Bihar's Raxaul, no airline has shown interest in any of the bidding rounds. The revival of Donakonda in Andhra Pradesh is held up by a land demarcation dispute. Warangal in neighbouring Telangana still awaits navigational aids and the all-important security clearance from the defence ministry.