New Delhi: The union aviation ministry on Wednesday said IndiGo and Jet Airways are among the players awarded 325 routes in the second round of UDAN(ude desk ka aam nagrik) bidding. SpiceJet and Alliance Air, which had joined the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) in the first round itself, have got more routes. As per the UDA scheme, one-hour flight journey will cost less than Rs 2500.

The routes connecting Gujarat in the second round are:

-Jaisalmer(tourist place in Rajasthan) – Ahmedabad – Spicejet

-Jaisalmer – Surat – Spicejet

-Kandla – Ahmedabad – Alliance Air and Truejet

-Keshod(near Somnath, Diu and Gir forest tourist circuit) – Ahmedabad – Truejet

-Porbandar – Ahmedabad – Truejet

-Hubli(second largest city of Karnataka) – Ahmedabad – Indigo

-Nashik(Maharashtra) – Ahmedabad – Alliance Air and Truejet

In the first round of UDAN where fares are capped at Rs 2,500 for an hour of flying in a plane for a specified number of RCS seats on each flight, 128 routes were awarded last March. But only 40 per cent of those have got operational till now as two airlines — Air Deccan and Air Odisha, which got 84 of those routes — are yet to start flying on a majority of them. SpiceJet and Alliance Air started operating the routes given to them.

These proposals will require a viability gap funding of Rs 487 crores per annum for plane operations. The government levies a regional cess of Rs 5,000 per non-regional flight to create a RCS fund to provide the VGF. After levying cess which is not to be increased, the remaining amount will come thanks to the finance ministry allowing us to retain a part of dividend paid by profitable Airports Authority of India to the government. This fiscal we retained Rs 200 crore of that dividend and next fiscal we will need Rs 500 crore.