Andaman to be first Island to operate seaplanes under UDAN-3

A seaplane takes off from the Amanwana resort on Moyo island in eastern Indonesia September 20, 2012. The seaplane taxiing over a coral reef to deliver tourists to a remote luxury resort may soon become a more familiar sight in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands and only 183 airports. At the moment, seaplanes in Indonesia are limited to niche charter flights for high-end tourism and mining, but their use could spread to serve the needs of a fast-growing economy and to beat the lack of transport infrastructure. Picture taken September 20,2012. REUTERS/Neil Chatterjee (INDONESIA - Tags: TRANSPORT BUSINESS TRAVEL) - GM1E8A90DKC01

India could soon see seaplanes being used to fly passengers with the government giving approval to 13 water aerodromes under UDAN-3. The very first seaplane could run within Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Moneycontrol has learnt that approximately four different islands from Andaman and one island from Nicobar have been selected to fly seaplanes. These are Havelock, Long Island, Neil Island and Hutbay Island in Andaman and Car Nicobar in Nicobar.

“The Andaman government has said that they would give additional incentives to allow operation of seaplanes otherwise people would not visit the places,” an official aware of the development said.

Government sources said that Andaman government is keen on pricing the non-RCS (regional connectivity scheme) seats at same prices as under RCS to boost tourism.

He added that the idea to incorporate water aerodromes was accepted on the Islands government’s persistence as Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) were apprehensive about the technical requirements.

“Teams from AAI and DGCA had gone to each of the selected waterbodies to do the survey… They wanted to select waterbodies and river fronts that could easily facilitate the infrastructure development,” the official said adding “Sea based water dromes, however, require more caution and technical understanding. Thus, AAI had said that it would not consider this under UDAN-3”.

Apart from these, the Statue of Unity (Gujarat), Sabarmati River Front (Ahmedabad), Shatrunjay Dam (Gujarat), Umrangso Reservoir (Assam), Guwahati River front (Assam), Tehri Dam (Uttarakhand), Erai Dam (Maharashtra), Khindsi Dam (Maharashtra) and Nagarjuna Sagar (Telangana) have been selected to facilitate travel by seaplanes.

Government had also invited bids from Dharoj Dam in Gujarat but it didn’t receive any bid.

According to government sources, SpiceJet and Andaman Airways Pvt Ltd are two airlines who have been selected to fly to and between Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a collection of close to 500 islands which are extremely popular among tourists. With the government stepping up efforts to boost air connectivity across India, UDAN is expected to provide huge impetus to the Bay of Bengal based islands.

Sector experts see the move as a “great step” to improve tourism in the region apart from Port Blair, the capital of Andaman.

“Andaman and Nicobar have always been an attractive destination for tourists. However, connectivity has always been an issue due to travelling to the island being expensive. Though direct air connectivity has been available for Port Blair, there is a lack of connectivity between the islands,” said an expert who added that against cruises, opening up routes through RCS is a good move.

UDAN was launched by the government in 2017 to make traveling via airways affordable for common man. The regional connectivity scheme (RCS) nudged airlines to operate over routes that were either undeserved or not served at all.

The aim of the scheme is to connect major cities with tier-II and tier-III cities at a price of Rs 2,500 per one-hour flight.

Till 2018, 122 air-routes have been made operational under the RCS, serving 21 underserved and 14 newly operated airports.