Tag Archives: Usha Padhee

Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt of India stated that the government is working to increase the number of airports in the country to 200 by 2024 from the current 140 airports. She further stated that aviation and tourism are complimenting sectors. “Air connectivity needs to be in tandem with what the tourism sector is doing,” she added. 

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has proposed 392 routes under UDAN 4.1 bidding process, and is focused on connecting smaller airports, along with special helicopter and seaplane routes. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, MoCA, says, “This round invites bids for priority routes which have not been covered under UDAN so far.”

Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, has said that tourism and civil aviation have been complementing each other for a long time. “By working together these sectors can achieve all objectives. We have the coordination committee at the level of Secretary, which MOT is also part of and under UDAN, we have regular meetings, where they communicate their requests, based on their stakeholders’ inputs,” she said.

Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, has been given the additional charge of Director General of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). In a Tweet announcing the appointment, Padhee revealed that she is the first woman to have been appointed to the post. Padhee succeeds IPS officer Rakesh Asthana, who has been appointed as the Director General of Border Security Force (BSF).

Highlighting the foremost areas of developing a robust tourism infrastructure and the current scenario of tourism in India, FICCI in association with Yes Bank has released a knowledge report titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’, during the Tourism Investors Meet 2018 held in New Delhi. The It also features facts and figures pertaining to the tourism sector and suggests recommendations to establish India as a global tourism hotspot. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, unveiled the report during the meet along with Bhupesh Rathore, President & Head – Strategic Government Advisory, Yes Bank; Dr Jyotsana Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chairperson, FICCI Tourism Committee; Dipak Deva, Co-chairman, FICCI Tourism Committee and Rahul Chakravarty, Consultant – Tourism, FICCI. Rathore also gave a presentation focusing on the potential and development of tourism across various sectors of the industry.

Travel and tourism investment is expected to rise by 6.7 per cent per annum over the next 10 years to Rs 5,546.3 billion in 2028, according to FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Paper titled ‘Tourism Infrastructure Investments- Leveraging Partnerships for Exponential Growth’. Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that the tourism and civil aviation ministries are engaging continuously to identify solutions and implement them for the growth of both the sectors. “The way forward is a focused approach for evolving tourist places under the aviation connectivity scheme and expanding existing routes under UDAN scheme including helicopter routes in hilly and north-eastern regions. This will provide good infrastructural support to the tourism sector,” said Padhee. She also added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is working to remove bottlenecks in remote and regional areas by providing proper navigation means, technology, better security and safety. Dr Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI & Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and CMD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, in her address said that increasing connectivity will boost tourism, adding that ‘one flight per day to Khajuraho will build the demand eventually’. Dipak Deva, Co-Chair, FICCI Tourism Committee and MD, SITA, TCI & Distant Frontiers also presented his views on the growth of tourism in the country at the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held in Delhi.

Ministry of Civil Aviation, hosted the first edition of WINGS 2017 – ‘Sab Uden, Sab Juden”- Expanding Regional Connectivity in New Delhi.  The plenary session was chaired by  P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister of Civil Aviation.  Around 338 delegates from the government and civil aviation sector participated in the event which included key stakeholders from all states, tourism departments and tour operators. The stakeholders interacted amongst themselves in 112 one to one discussions (G2B meetings) with the airlines operators in an attempt to showcase their destinations and routes as viable business market for the airlines. They represented airline consumers to facilitate interaction with various airlines, airport operators, cargo operators and other ecosystem players at a common forum. Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation;Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, MoCA; B S Bhullar, Director General of Civil Aviation; Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India; Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Pratyush Kumar, Chairman, FICCI National Aviation Committee also attended the sessions. 19 states made presentations emphasising the incentives or special packages to the airlines other than the support offered by Government of India under RCS- UDAN. The closed-door event entailed incentives to the airlines operators such as underwriting of seats, reducing the tax on ATF, additional VGF, night parking, concessional electricity and water charges, infrastructural support etc. and routes and airport wise benefits. This event proved to be an ideal platform for states to project themselves as a viable aviation market and showcasing the strength and opportunities in the aviation sector to the potential airlines.