On 25th July 2023, Union Minister of Civil Aviation and Steel, Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated the 5th Helicopter & Small Aircraft Summit (Heli Summit 2023) in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh.
- During the event Scindia launched Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN(Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik,) 5.2 (RCS UDAN 5.2) and HeliSewa app.
Heli Summit 2023:
i.The theme of the summit was “Reaching the Last Mile: Regional Connectivity through Helicopters & Small Aircraft”.
ii.The summit was jointly organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in association with the Government of Madhya Pradesh, Pawan Hans Ltd., and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Objectives of the Heli Summit 2023:
i.Providing a common platform for all industry stakeholders, and policymakers to discuss the growth story of the Indian Helicopter and Small Aircraft industry.
ii.Enhancing the scope of the UDAN Scheme in remote and hilly terrains and expanding the country’s rural-to-urban connectivity.
iii.Boosting Helicopter & Small Aircraft connectivity to places with existing and potential tourism hotspots by providing uninterrupted services.
Launch during the summit:
i.UDAN 5.2:
UDAN 5.2 for small aircraft (by awarding 22 routes) and for helicopters (by increasing the VGF and reducing the fare cap) has been launched.
Note: Udan , launched in October 2016, aims to enhance the connectivity to in tier II and tier III cities of India and achieve last-mile connectivity through small aircraft such as 1A (with less than nine seats) and Category 1(with less than 20 seats).
ii.HeliSewa app:
HeliSewa is a single window service platform by the initiative of the Ministry of Civil Aviation under Digital India to develop a common platform by creating an ecosystem between the helicopter operators and the district authorities.
iii.A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Pawan Hans Ltd. and Jet Serve Aviation Pvt. Ltd. was signed for advancing the Helicopter and Small Aircraft sector in India.
Flight Training Organisations (FTO):
Scindia inaugurated 3 FTO; two pilot training academies and one helicopter training institute and also announced aircraft services between Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
- With this, the number of FTOs in Madhya Pradesh has risen to six — three in Khajuraho, and one each in Indore, Sagar and Guna.
Recent related news:
On February 8th, 2023, helicopter service provider, Pawan Hans Limited (PHL), a central public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), launched its helicopter services on 6 routes in Assam under the RCS UDAN Scheme (Regional Connectivity Scheme- Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik).
- The new helicopter services will provide connectivity on the “Dibrugarh-Jorhat-Tezpur-Guwahati-Tezpur-Jorhat-Dibrugarh” network.
About Madhya Pradesh:
Chief Minister- Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Governor- Mangubhai Patel
Capital- Bhopal
