THE NEWS
The government has chosen 24 airports and helipads for the second phase of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) in order to improve connectivity in remote and strategic locations in the North-East and Jammu & Kashmir.
The selected areas are:-
| STATE | Number Of Airports |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 9 |
| Manipur | 5 |
| Assam | 5 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 2 |
| Meghalaya | 1 |
| Tripura | 1 |
| Sikkim | 1 |
| TOTAL- | 24 |
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The second phase of RCS aims to provide air connectivity to the hinterland in order to provide an impetus to the economic growth of regional centres.
It mainly focuses on connecting unconnected towns and cities.
The government has decided to keep the focus on ‘ priority areas’- North-East, Jammu & Kashmir and other hilly regions of the country.
Presently, the airports identified under the RCS are being used by the IAF including
In Arunachal Pradesh- Daporijo, Yinghong, Ziro, Pasighat, Along, Tuting and Walong.
- In Jammu & Kashmir- Kishtwar and Kargil .
- In Assam – Tezpur, Jorhat and Lilabari .
- The aerodromes at Tezpur, Jorhat and Lilabari in Assam.
The other airports are under the aegis of either the AAI, or respective state governments.
UDAN
A project designed to make the air travelling accessible to all citizens in the regionally important cities, UDAN aims at providing air connectivity to currently under-served and unserved airports in India and with the AAI as its implementing authority.
MoCA had initiated the project UDAN ( Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik ) under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS).
UNDER-SERVED AIRPORTS- An un-served airport is the one to which there are no daily services.
UNDER-SERVED AIRPORTS- An under-served airport is the one which has not seen a flight for two consecutive flight schedules.
FIRST PHASE OF RCS-
In the list of routes awarded in the first phase of the scheme, only six airports in the North- East- Shillong, Dimarpur, Imphal, Silchar, Aizawl and Agartala were connected.
The first round did not involve routes to Jammu & Kashmir.
WAY AHEAD
The airports and helipads in Arunachal Pradesh fall under the category of ‘unserved’ airports.
The airports will require some infrastructural upgradation such as operational runways, air traffic control, emergency systems such as fire and ambulance, approach roads, etc.
RCS Phase 2 will improve air connectivity which is a big problem in remote areas.
