As many as 58 airports in 29 states/Union Territories have been included under Krishi UDAN 2.0, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen V.K. Singh (retd) said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

What is Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme?

• Krishi UDAN scheme was launched in August 2020 on international and national routes to assist farmers in transporting agricultural products so that it improves their value realisation. 

• Krishi UDAN 2.0 was launched in October 2021 enhancing the existing provisions, mainly focusing on transporting perishable food products from the hilly areas, northeast states and tribal areas. 

• Krishi UDAN 2.0 lays out the vision of improving value realisation through better integration and optimisation of agri-harvesting and air transportation and contributing to agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions.

• It is a convergence scheme where eight ministries/departments would leverage their existing schemes to strengthen the logistics for transportation of agri-produce. 

• There is no budgetary allocation for the scheme.

• All perishable commodities are covered under Krishi UDAN scheme in the country.

• For facilitating and incentivising movement of agri-produce by air transportation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) provides full waiver of landing, parking charges, Terminal Navigation Landing Charges (TNLC) and Route Navigation Facility Charges (RNFC) for Indian freighters and P2C aircraft (passenger aircraft that are being used to just transport cargo) at selected airports.

• All the airports in the northeast region, including Assam, are covered under the scheme.

Benefits of the scheme:

• Providing more air connectivity (national and international) between origin-destination airports aimed at bringing in improved logistics efficiency.

• Improving infrastructure and performance in processing of air cargo by all stakeholders, including agri-produce, horticulture, fisheries, livestock products at airports and off-airport facilities, by regulatory participating governmental agencies (PGAs).

• Imparting special focus to air freight of organic and natural produce of northeast region, tribal and hilly districts.

• Achieving better and timely mapping of agri-produce production/supply centres with domestic demand clusters and international markets in sync with the marketing strategies.

• Promoting adoption of plant and animal quarantine and other regulatory requirements (at airport) in the export supply chains end-to-end.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store