Now, Chillies From Varanasi To Dubai…

In its move to connect to the last farmer, cargo flights will start receiving Viability Gap Funding and in the process boost incomes in the hinterland.

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The Indian government’s initiative to connect to the last man saw the launch of the regional connectivity scheme UDAN (“Let the common citizen of the country fly”). Some of the routes have not taken off – largely due to new airlines inability to acquire planes – even with the government providing financial help through what is known as viability gap funding. There have been three rounds of bidding for routes and at last count 688 routes had been awarded to airlines.

UDAN states that the civil aviation ministry contributes 80 per cent of the VGF amount, while the remaining comes from the governments of the states the flights are from. Carrriers like Spice- Jet has started connecting unserved and underserved airports at affordable prices – without taking the help of VGF. Under the UDAN plan, the government has fixed fares on flights to unserved and underserved destinations in the country at `2500/hour of flights.