Parliamentary Standing Committee wants MoCA, MoT to coordinate for tourism

Out of the 106 tourism routes floated by the Ministry of Tourism, only 31 routes had started operations

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The Standing Committee for Transport, Tourism, and Culture under the Chairmanship of TG Venkatesh, MP, has asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Tourism to coordinate to operationalise the tourism specific UDAN

routes identified and floated by the Ministry of Tourism. The report from the Committee was placed before Parliament recently.

The report mentioned that out of the 106 tourism routes floated by the Ministry of Tourism, only 31 routes had started operations. The Committee suggested an “exhaustive plan for coordination” in a “time-bound manner” to start operation on the routes to help and support the revival of tourism in the country which was the worst hit in the global pandemic.

Asking to sort out the operational issues at these places, the Standing Committee asked for detailed planning before initiating seaplane operations, so that there was no stoppage of such flights due to technical, operational, or any other reason

The Committee also expressed its concern over the poor demand for the UDAN routes which has impacted nearly 300 routes out of the total 403 routes so far. The committee asked the Ministry of Tourism to formulate revival plans including the extension of the benefits for two more years for these routes which have been impacted across the country.

The Standing Committee also expressed its “dismay” since only 403 out of the 948 valid routes identified could be started under the RCS-UDAN in the last five years since the programme started in 2016.

The report also said that the seaplane and water aerodrome projects under UDAN had shown little progress. While asking to expedite the development of the 14 water aerodromes identified, the Committee expressed its concern on closing down operations of services at Sabarmati River Front and Sardar Sarovar Dam (Gujarat). Asking to sort out the operational issues at these places, the Standing Committee asked for detailed planning before initiating seaplane operations, so that there was no stoppage of such flights due to technical, operational, or any other reason.

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