The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched “Krishi Udan 2.0 scheme” on October 27, 2021.

Key Points

• Under “Krishi Udan 2.0 scheme”, cargo-related infrastructure will be built in airports of hilly, tribal, and north-east regions.
• Such infrastructure will help in assisting farmers to transport agriculture products.
• The scheme proposes to facilitating and incentivizing movement of Agri-produce by air transportation.
• It lays out the vision of improving value realization through better integration and optimization of Agri-harvesting and air transportation.
• It works by contributing to Agri-value chain sustainability and resilience under different and dynamic conditions.
• It will be implemented at 53 airports across the country mainly focusing on Northeast and tribal regions and is likely to benefit farmer, freight forwarders and Airlines.

Krishi Udan Scheme

Central government had launched Krishi Udan scheme in September 2020. Under the scheme, airport charges like parking charges & terminal navigational landing charges were waived off. Charges were waived off if the agricultural cargo is more than 50 per cent of the total chargeable weight carried.

Krishi Udan 2.0

Under Krishi Udan 2.0, central government has planned for granting full waiver of airport charges at select airports. Waiver would be given even if agricultural cargo is lower than 50 per cent of total chargeable weight carried. Centre will also facilitate the development of hub and spoke model across India. Government will also create cargo terminals at the airports in phase-wise manner. Moreover, government will encourage states to reduce sales tax to one per cent on aviation turbine fuel, which is used in freighter aircraft and passenger aircraft for transporting cargo.