The Centre would soon commence a new route connecting Vellore under its flagship UDAN scheme, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said. As many as 473 new routes have been operationalised under the UDAN scheme launched by the Centre to boost air connectivity in Tier-II and -III cities. “In terms of airport, Salem airport has been operationalised (in Tamil Nadu). Vellore will be operational in the next couple of months. Fourteen routes of UDAN will be coming to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) scheme was launched as a programme to offer air connectivity in Tier-II and -III cities by the Union Government. Maintaining that the country had only 74 airports in operations for 65 years after attaining Independence he said the government built additional 74 new airports, heliports and waterdomes totalling to 148.