Yogi wants ‘wings’ for religious tourism
The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has approached the Centre seeking its nod to allow air connectivity between its cities, mostly of religious importance.
Among other proposals from Uttar Pradesh are air connectivity between its towns such as Varanasi, Kushinagar, Meerut, Allahabad.
Uttar Pradesh ministers Sidharth Nath Singh and Nand Gopal Gupta met Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha in New Delhi on Thursday with the proposal. Sinha is expected to meet Adityanath in Lucknow on June 14 to discuss the matter and sort out issues.
UP currently has major airports in Varanasi and Lucknow. Another at Allahabad is operated by the Indian Air Force and one more at Gorakhpur has limited flights.
It has now proposed two circuits — Buddha and Ganga Darshan — under a new scheme of the Centre that promotes cheaper air connectivity between small towns. It wants to cover cities like Varanasi, Kushinagar, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya (in Bihar) under the Buddha circuit and Varanasi and Allahabad under Ganga Darshan. “We have proposed fixedwing as well as helicopter services between cities,” Singh said.
Among other routes that the UP government is exploring for air service are Lucknow-Gorakhpur, Meerut-Allahabad and Varanasi-Lucknow.
Launched on April 27, 2017, UDAN, the regional airport development and connectivity scheme, features flights to underserved smaller towns in which a certain number of seats will be subsidised — ₹2,500 for an hourlong flight, and fares going up pro-rata for longer distances — according to a government press release.
For instance, a subsidised Shimla-Delhi ticket is priced at ₹2,036, and operated by Alliance Air, an Air India subsidiary.