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To further enhance regional air connectivity, the Centre on Sunday invited bids for the 4.1 round of the RCS-Udan scheme.

Accordingly, the 'Bid Document' has been uploaded on the Central Procurement portal of the National Informatics Centre inviting the bids from interested airlines.

The process is expected to be completed by six weeks.

In a statement, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said that some operational flexibilities are extended to Airlines under the Udan 4.1 to ensure suitable operation models to connect smaller cities or airstrips.

Besides, new routes are proposed under 'Sagaramala Seaplane Services'.

Furthermore, operations under NSOP will be allowed for seaplane, fixed-wing aircraft, Helicopters for RCS routes awarded under Udan 4.1.

According to Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA: "Following the four successful rounds of bidding, the special Udan 4.1 bidding round invites bids for priority routes which have not been covered under Udan so far."

"This bidding round also includes routes specially requested by the State governments or UT administrations and earlier cancelled o terminated routes. We have observed great demand on many tier-2 and 3 Udan routes attesting the necessity along with essentiality and criticality of these regional routes. We aim to equip our country with one of the strongest air connectivity networks."

The process was launched on the commencement of the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (India@75)'.

Notably, the scheme envisages to make air travel affordable and widespread in the country.

It intends to boost inclusive national economic growth, employment opportunities, and air transport infrastructure development across the nation.

Till date, 325 routes and 56 airports including 5 heliports and 2 Water Aerodromes have been operationalised under the Udan scheme.