To promote regional air connectivity and lower the cost of air travel for the general public, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) Called UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) on October 21, 2016.

The UDAN plan calls for revitalising the country's existing airstrips and airports in order to connect underserved and unserved airports. UDAN is a demand-driven programme where airline companies periodically submit bids after determining whether or not they can operate on a specific route. A competitive, open method is used to choose the airlines.
 

As of November 30, 2022, 453 routes have started, operationalizing 70 Airports, including 2 Water Aerodrome & 9 Heliports, following four rounds of bidding under UDAN. Over 1.1 crore people have used the benefits of UDAN flights, which have operated on more than 2.15 lakh occasions. The programme has changed how people travel by enabling air connection to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities at low airfares.


Krishi Udan 2.0 focuses on transporting perishable food products from the hilly areas, north-eastern states and tribal areas. Under Krishi Udan Scheme, Airports Authority of India provides full waiver of Landing Parking, Terminal Navigation Landing Charges (TNLC) and Route Navigation Facility Charges (RNFC) for Indian freighters and P2C (Passenger-to-Cargo) Aircraft primarily around 25 airports focusing on North Eastern, Hilly and Tribal region and 28 airports in other regions/areas. A review of Krishi Udan 2.0 Scheme has been done by Ministry after which 05 more airports have been added thus making it a total of 58 airports.
 

Upgradation/Modernisation of airports' infrastructure is a continuous process and is undertaken by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other Airport Developers from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand/willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports. AAI and other Airport Developers have targeted capital outlay of approximately Rs. 98,000 Crore in airport sector in the next five years for expansion and modification of existing terminals, new terminals and strengthening of runways, among other activities.
 

The Government of India has accorded 'In-Principle' approval for setting up of 21 Greenfield Airports namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Oravakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Donyi Polo, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh across the country.

 

From the year 2019 to 2022 38 new Airports including 10 greenfield airports have been inaugurated and total 351 RCS Routes operationalised under UDAN Scheme.
 

Ministry of Civil Aviation has notified the Drone Rules 2021 on 25th August, 2021. Under the Drone Rules, 2021, MoCA has published an interactive airspace map for drone operations segregating the entire airspace of India into red, yellow and green zone. A Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for drones has also been notified on 30th September 2021.
 

In order to develop Helicopter services for Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) to provide a speedy medical outreach to needy citizens, the Government intends to undertake a HEMS pilot project in the mountainous state of Uttarakhand called Project Sanjeevani.