The year 2016 was a turning point for India's civil aviation, with the central government announcing

two
key policy statements that have changed the sector forever for the better. First, the central government
came up with its National Civil Aviation Policy. Two important objectives of the NCAP 2016 are to
"enhance regional connectivity through financial support and infrastructure development" and to
"establish an integrated eco-system, which will lead to a significant growth of the civil aviation sector,
which in turn would promote tourism, increase employment and lead to a balanced regional growth."
To meet the twin objectives, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry came up with the Regional Connectivity
Scheme in October 2016, which was then revised in December 2016 to give final shape to the plan and
spell out what's in store for the sector in the years to come. The Regional Connectivity Scheme also has
an acronym to its credit: UDAN (Ude Desh Ke Aam Naagrik). The government began the process of
implementing the UDAN Regional Connectivity Scheme with the allotment of routes under the first
phase in 2017. In April 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the inaugural flight, flagging off the
Alliance Air's Delhi-to- Shimla route. Another operator, Trujet connected Hyderabad in Telangana with
Nanded in Maharashtra and with a separate route from Hyderabad to Kadapa. Air Deccan, Spice Jet and
Air Odisha too were awarded routes in the first round of bidding. The UDAN-1 round led to the
commencement of 16 regional conne ctivity scheme routes. The Government awarded the second
round of routes under UDAN-2 to 78 airports of which 36 are currently serviced, 13 are underserved and
29 are unserved aircraft. This round led to 25 new airports being connected through the regional
connectivity scheme. That apart, 31 new heliports/ helipads too were connected through UDAN-2. The
government is awarded 90 proposals under the second phase of the scheme. The airlines that joined the
race to bag UDAN routes under the second round and were successful in their bids include Indigo, Zoom
Air, Turbo Aviation, Heritage, Jet Airways, Ghodawat, Skyone, Heligo Charters, AAA Aviation, Pinnacle
Air, MEHAIR and Pawan Hans.

The UDAN scheme has kindled the appetite for the global aireraft makers, who are raring to make the
business opportunity a win-win-win for themselves, the airlines and the nation. Our sector estimate has
put the number of aircraft required for shorter routes and smaller airports under the UDAN scheme
could be around 200 to 300 birds in the next 10 years. The UDAN scheme has created a great
opportunity for Embraer, which make 70 to 120-seater aircraft, which could be used in regional markets
to connect major cities to small towns. A recent study by the International Air Transport association
forecast that India will have the third fastest growing aviation market by 2036, with 337 million new
fliers taking the country's total passenger count to 478 million. It was reported recently that a blueprint
prepared by Indian Railways (IR) had forewarned that the number of passengers travelling by air would
exceed AC-class passengers in 2019-20. IR and domestic airlines carried about 145 million and 97.8
million passengers respectively between December 2015 and November 2016. With a projected 20%
growth in air passengers and 5% growth in rail AC-class passengers between December 2015 to
November 2016 and 2019-20, it is estimated that air passengers will outnumber rail AC-class passengers
in 2019-20. The proposed project is intended for the development of International Airport near Jewar,
Uttar Pradesh. The need for the project arises from the constraints encountered by the present IGI
Airport at Delhi in terms of catering the increasing demand in the NCR Region. Increasing air traffic and
spurt in the rate of domestic and international passengers have constrained the operations of IGI Airport
at Delhi in terms of facilities and space. Thus the need for second airport becomes imperative for
improving the standards of airport operations and services in the NCR region. The International Airport
near Jewar will be developed as an Aviation Hub which is conceived to provide all the modern, efficient
and hi-tech facilities designed with large land reserves around it with clear master plan for continued
phased development into the future. The airport area when fully operational is expected to have Aero
and Non-Aero activities along with MRO facilities With the development of the proposed airport,
industrial and infrastructure investment is expected to boost the economic state of the region which
would lead to increase in the employment opportunities for the affected population.

The development of airport would lead to enhancement in the manufacturing and export sector. Since
the proposed site is located closely to major tourist attractions like Vrindavan, Taj Mahal, Mathura etc,
the tourism sector is also expected to perform significantly well in the region. Apart from the above, the
proposed airport is expected to give excellent experience to the passengers by saving their time, cost
and efforts, by having easy and fast access to the airport.