New Delhi: To enhance air connectivity for North East Region (NER), budgetary allocation of amount of approximately Rs 24 crores has been made in the Financial Year 2021-22 to support the airlines, Minister of State for Civil Aviation General VK Singh said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

He said the Government of India with a view to achieve better connectivity of air transport services of different regions of the country has issued the Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG). Routes have been classified into various categories, namely, Category - I, II, II-A and III under the RDG. There are twenty routes connecting cities directly under Category-I.

Routes connecting stations in North-Eastern Region, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep Islands are classified as Category - II. All scheduled operators are required to deploy in Category-II routes at least 10 per cent of their deployed capacity on Category-I routes.

Routes within the North-Eastern Region, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep Islands and Cochin-Agatti-Cochin are classified as Category-II A. All operators are required to deploy at least one per cent in Category-II A routes of the capacity, deployed on Category-I routes. /BI/