Context:
Uttar Pradesh has emerged as a national model of public sector innovation, driven by a substantial transformation in its civil aviation sector over the last seven years.
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- In 2017, Uttar Pradesh had just 3 operational airports—Lucknow, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur. Now, the state has 15 functional airports, with 17 additional ones being developed under the Centre’s Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS-UDAN).
- A state-of-the-art international airport is being developed in Jewar, Noida, and is set to rank among the largest in India.
- Uttar Pradesh’s civil aviation growth was highlighted globally when secretary to the Chief Minister presented a a research paper at the 2024 Annual Conference of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) in Washington, DC.
- ASPA is a global leader in public administration research, hosts an annual conference with scholars, researchers, and policy professionals from nearly 100 countries.
- UP’s aviation success is attributed to strategic policy, technological, and administrative innovations, especially the state’s groundbreaking Civil Aviation Promotion Policy, 2017.
- This policy offered 100% seat underwriting for RCS-UDAN routes, ensuring financial viability for airlines even when seats went unsold.
- Uttar Pradesh introduced enablers like tax exemptions, waived airport parking charges, and an API-linked real-time seat underwriting system to enhance transparency and efficiency.
- A dedicated portal (www.uprcs.upsdc.gov.in) was launched to manage airline subsidies, while cities like Ayodhya, Aligarh, and Shravasti were connected by air for the first time.
- Affordable airfares, as low as Rs 1,000, embodied the UDAN motto: “Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik.”
- Jewar Airport: A Model PPP Venture
- The Jewar International Airport project in Noida is a significant public-private partnership (PPP), developed by Zurich Airport International AG under a 40-year DBFOT (Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer) model.
- The airport will be completed in two phases and is planned to include five runways upon full completion.
- It is designed to serve as a major logistics and cargo hub, with integrated connectivity through expressways, metros, and rapid rail networks.
- Upon completion, it is expected to become a major logistics and cargo hub, ranking as Asia’s largest and the fourth-largest in the world.
