"Make in India’ ambitions" India’s indigenous Dornier plane starts off its maiden commercial ops from Assam to Arunachal

India’s indigenous 17-seater Dornier 228 plane began its maiden commercial operations on Tuesday, giving a significant boost to its ‘Make in India’ ambitions.

The flight was accompanied by senior government officials and ministers, including Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and law minister Kiren Rijiju.

The flight will connect Assam’s Dibrugarh and Arunachal’s Pasighat and is set to boost air connectivity in the northeastern region.

In the coming months, the services will be further expanded to Tezu, Mechuka, Ziro and Tuting in Arunachal with the Dibrugarh airport as the hub station.

In phase II, the service will connect Mechuka, Vijaynagar and other places.

The flight is being operated by Alliance Air under the government-promoted UDAN scheme that seeks to provide air connectivity and aviation infrastructure in the remote parts of India.

In February, the government-run Alliance Air had signed an agreement with government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to



lease two 17-seater Dornier 228 aircraft. The airline received its first Dornier 228 plane on April 7.

“Development of North Eastern Region (NER) is not only of strategic importance, but is also part of India’s growth story. Connectivity in NER is very essential and Under “Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN)”, the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has identified NER as a priority area. This has helped in enhancing inter and intra connectivity for the NER,” the government said in a press release.

Under the scheme, new airports are getting developed and old airports are getting upgraded.

“Considering the hilly terrain, helicopter operations under UDAN scheme have been given focus for connectivity,” the press release said.

The Dornier 228 plane uses Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG) maintained by the Indian Air Force.

It is a twin-turboprop short take-off and landing utility aircraft. The aircraft has a wingspan of 16.97 m, overall length of 16.56 m, and overall height of 4.86 m.