New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS): To boost tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre has invited bids from companies to provide air services to 11 unserved airports in the region under the fourth round of the regional air connectivity -- Udan -- scheme.

"Under Udan 4.0, MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) has put on offer bids for 11 unserved airports in Jammu and Kashmir and 2 underserved airports in the Ladakh region," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"The objective is to establish strong air connectivity and to boost the tourism sector."

Accordingly, it has invited bids for Kargil and Thoise airports in Ladakh and Akhnur, Chamb, Chushal, Fukche, Gurex, Jhangar, Miran Sahib, Panzgam, Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides, the ministry under Udan 4 scheme is providing additional Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of around 25 per cent extra to airlines.

"MoCA aims to operationalise 1,000 routes and more than 100 airports in the next five years. This would be achieved by focusing on operationalising routes in priority areas," the ministry said.

"AAI would focus on developing the no-frills airports in the future and routes connecting such airports would be prioritised for the award of VGF. The market would be incentivised to develop short-haul routes only, providing connectivity to nearby airports."

On Tuesday, the Centre invited bids for the fourth round of the RCS-Udan scheme with focus on priority areas like the Northeastern and hill states, the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir and islands.

The scheme provides various concessions to the selected airline operators to operate routes under the RCS-Udan from Centre and state governments. Accordingly, the fourth round of the scheme features revision of the VGF cap.