Pawan Hans launches helicopter flights on Dehradun-Gauchar route in U'khand under UDAN scheme

NEW DELHI: Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) launched on Wednesday helicopter service on the Dehradun-New Tehri-Srinagar-Gauchar route in Uttarakhand under the Central government's regional connectivity scheme UDAN.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter that he was "delighted" to inaugurate the UDAN route along with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

"With this, we have added six more routes and two heliports at New Tehri and Srinagar," he said. Puri noted that these routes provide a much-needed air connectivity to the people of the hill state and the cost for availing the service is affordable.

The Narendra Modi government had launched the UDAN Scheme in 2016 to improve regional air connectivity.

Under the scheme, financial incentives in terms of concessions from the Centre, state governments and airport operators are extended to selected flight operators to encourage operations from unserved and under-served airports, and keep airfares affordable.

As at least half of the seats in UDAN flights are offered at subsidised fares, and the participating carriers are provided a certain amount of viability gap funding (VGF) -- an amount shared between the Centre and the state concerned.

The government-run PHL too announced on Twitter on Wednesday: "Pawan Hans launched RCS Uttarakhand Route today from Dehradun-NewTehri-Srinagar-Gauchar-Dehradun."