Indian aviation is gaining wings!

Many cities have been added to the aviation route since 2016.

Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh got air connectivity with Delhi and Bombay on Friday. It will be connected to Indore and Hyderabad next week. Bhavnagar in Gujarat got connected with Delhi, Surat and other cities, when a private airline launched 14 new flights on Friday.

Over 60 smaller cities have been added to the country's aviation map under the government's Regional Connectivity Scheme, which was launched in 2016, with a view to enable air operations on unreserved routes connecting regional areas, promote balanced regional growth and make flying affordable for the masses. 

Over the past 35 days, operations of 44 new flights have commenced in Madhya Pradesh, of which 26 aircraft movements have been attributed solely to Jabalpur.

Budget carrier Indigo said that after Bhopal and Indore, Jabalpur and Gwalior will be the third and fourth stations in Madhya Pradesh. SpiceJet announced 14 new flights including 12 industry-first non-stop flights. While SpiceJet will be the first airline to connect Bhavnagar-Delhi, Bhavnagar-Surat, Gwalior-Jaipur, Kishangarh(Ajmer)-Bombay, Pune-Tirupati and Varanasi-Dehradun, the airline will also launch a non-stop flight connecting Bhavnagar with Bombay. A spokesperson said it is one of the major regional players operating 63 daily flights under the Regional Connectivity Scheme.

On 12 Aug, Bareilly in UP got a flight connecting Bombay. On 08 Mar, it became the 56th airport to commence operations under the UDAN scheme. On 04 Aug, the first direct flight between Imphal and Shillong was flagged off.

Ministry officials said more that 360 of a total of 780 awarded routes have started connecting smaller cities and metros. A senior official has said that over 100 airports and heliports are to be developed by 2024. 9 airports have been developed in 2019-'20 and 26 are to be developed in 2020-'21. 20 each are to be developed in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

New Cities on Aviation Map

* Bihar.                   Darbhanga.

* Gujarat.                Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kandla, Mundra, Porbandar.

* Karnataka.            Belagavi, Hubbali, Mysuru, Vidyanagar, Kalaburgi, Bidar.

* Madhya Pradesh. Gwalior, Jabalpur.

* Maharashtra.        Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Nanded, Ozar.

* Rajasthan.            Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Kishangarh.

* Uttar Pradesh.      Bareilly, Agra, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Hindon.

* Uttarakhand.        Pantnagar, Pithoragarh, Sahasthradhara, Chinyalisaur, Gaucher, New Tehri.

* Assam.                 Jorhat, Lilabari, Tezpur.

- Kumar Vikram in the NIE.

My take

A country's progress is measured by the extent of communication prevalent and the connectivity that renders the conventional meaning of 'remote and inaccessible' meaningless.

Tailpiece.

Was up by 6, the chores and was ready by 10. It was a leisurely Sunday.

Spoke to Ammu and it was a concall of the family. The cohesion was good and I think each one of us, from here, could convince her that she wasn't far away from us - mentally. She looks more sure of herself, now.

Participated in a webinar : "Mehru Jaffer in conversation with Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones (upcoming book Lucknow 1857) and Gen Milan Naidu (new book Nizam-I-Bhopal)" from 1828 to 2030 hrs. An evening well spent!