Indian Government’s UDAN Scheme Gives Wings to Your Travel Dreams

Ever shelved your desire to travel to or from a smaller city just because flights were too inconvenient or expensive? Well, all that could be a thing of the past. Indians now have reason to rejoice, because travelling by air in India just got easier – and cheaper!

One of PM Narendra Modi’s pet projects, UDAN (which stands for ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik’) is a Regional Connectivity Scheme that aims to make underserved airports in small cities operational with regular flights, and offer subsidized airfares to encourage more people to fly. Under this scheme, 50% of the seats on UDAN flights will be capped at INR 2500.

The UDAN Scheme kick-started with its first flight from Delhi to Bathinda, and there are several sectors operational already, with many more being rapidly added to the list. For common folks like us, this translates into a lot of good news – convenient travel, more vacations, more destinations, fewer budget constraints, no more sweating over train bookings and quicker commute.

For example, a trip from Delhi to Shimla would normally take you 7 hours by road and even longer by train. One way train and bus fares range anywhere between INR 1500-1800 in AC coaches, and since there is no direct rail connectivity to Shimla, you would have to spend extra on a cab or a bus ride to your destination. However, with regular flights running, you could reach there in just 1 hour 15 minutes whenever you want, in just INR 2500, while avoiding the hassle of changing trains and buses.

Currently, there are flights running between Delhi to Shimla, Mumbai to Nanded, Hyderabad to Nanded, Hyderabad to Kadapa and Delhi to Bhatinda. There are 45 tier 2 and tier 3 cities all set to be looped into this scheme in the coming months, and you can count on us to keep you posted on the developments.

Planning to travel anytime soon? Go book yourself into a flight because there’s no reason not to!  

Tentative List of Routes Released by GOI

	S.No	Underserved Airport	Connected To
	1	Bhatinda	Delhi
	2	Shimla	Delhi
	3	Agra	Jaipur
	4	Bikaner	Delhi
	5	Gwalior	Delhi, Indore, Lucknow
	6	Kadapa	Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Vijaywada
	7	Ludhiana	Delhi
	8	Nanded	Mumbai, Hyderabad
	9	Pathankot	Delhi
	10	Vidyanagar	Hyderabad, Bengaluru
	11	Andal (Durgapur)	Bagdogra, Kolkata
	12	Burnpur	Kolkata
	13	Cooch Behar	Kolkata
	14	Jamshedpur	Kolkata
	15	Rourkela	Kolkata, Bhubhaneshwar
	16	Bhavnagar	Ahmedabad, Surat
	17	Diu	Ahmedabad
	18	Jamnagar	Ahmedabad
	19	Adampur	Delhi
	20	Kandla	Mumbai
	21	Kanpur	Delhi, Varanasi
	22	Kullu (Bhuntar)	Delhi
	23	Mithapur (Dwarka)	Ahmedabad
	24	Mundra	Ahmedabad
	25	Pantnagar	Dehradun, Delhi
	26	Pondicherry	Hyderabad, Chennai, Salem
	27	Porbandar	Mumbai
	28	Shillong (Barapani)	Agartala, Aizawl, Dimapur, Imphal, Silchar
	29	Ambikapur	Bilaspur
	30	Bilaspur	Ambikapur, Raipur
	31	Jagdalpur	Raipur, Vishakhapatnam
	32	Jaisalmer	Jaipur
	33	Jalgaon	Mumbai
	34	Jeypore	Bhubaneshwar
	35	Jharsuguda	Bhubaneshwar, Raipur, Ranchi
	36	Kolhapur	Mumbai
	37	Mysore	Chennai
	38	Neyveli	Chennai
	39	Ozar Nasik	Mumbai, Pune
	40	Raigarh	Raipur
	41	Salem	Bengaluru, Chennai, Pondicherry
	42	Sholapur	Mumbai
	43	Utkela	Bhubaneshwar, Raipur
	44	Bidar	Bengaluru
	45	Hosur	Chennai