Northeast India to soon have seaplanes to connect airports under UDAN scheme

Assam will soon have water aerodromes in two destinations that will link them with airports via seaplanes. UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme is adding a new dimension with the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation giving its nod for setting up the said water aerodromes in Assam. With this development, Northeast India is looking forward to boosting tourism and attract more visitors in the near future.
As per the latest news reports, Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, under UDAN 3 scheme, recently handed out the letters of award to successful airlines.

If one goes into the technicality of seaplanes, these are powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Also, there are two categories of seaplanes, i.e., Category 1 and Category 1A. While the Category 1A seaplanes have less than nine seats, whereas Category 1 seaplanes comprise between 9 and 20 seats.
Not just these seaplane links, the Civil Aviation Ministry is also planning to introduce a number of routes in Northeast India under and bringing it under the ambit of UDAN scheme. As of now, a private airline has been selected to connect Guwahati riverfront to Umrangso Reservoir, Guwahati riverfront to Jorhat, and Guwahati riverfront to Shillong.
As per the sources, routes that have been included under UDAN 3 scheme are Guwahati-Pasighat-Guwahati, Guwahati-Lilabari-Guwahati, Guwahati-Tezpur-Guwahati, and Kolkata-Shillong-Kolkata. And latest reports reveal that these routes will be made operational from April 2019.