UDAN: Jyotiraditya Scindia is the 33rd Civil Aviation Minister of the country. (File photo)
Jyotiraditya Scindia, the newly-sworn-in Union Civil Aviation Minister, today shared a "good news" for the people of his home state, Madhya Pradesh. The state, he said, will have eight new flights from July 16 under the UDAN scheme, which is focused on connecting smaller airports with the rest of the country.
The new flights will be operated by SpiceJet, he said, tagging the airline in his Twitter post as he made the announcement.
The Civil Aviation Ministry and the aviation industry are committed to taking the UDAN scheme to greater heights, the minister said.
The government has set a target of operationalising 100 unserved and underserved airports under the UDAN scheme, Hardeep Singh Puri, who was the Aviation Minister before Mr Scindia, had said earlier this year. The government also plans to start at least 1,000 air routes under the scheme which is focused on connecting smaller airports, he had said.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP last year after leaving the Congress, took charge as the 33rd Civil Aviation Minister on Friday.
Jyotiraditya's father, Madhav Rao Scindia, was also the Civil Aviation Minister in the early 1990s under Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.
As new Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Scindia will see the divestment of the national carrier Air India due to the huge losses by the airlines. He will also be expected to take a call on the privatising of loss-making airports and initiate ways to boost the pandemic-hit aviation sector.