Imphal: Minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha has said 92 new routes will be opened in the Northeast after the second round of bidding under the Centre's regional air connectivity scheme.

Sinha, who was speaking at the inaugural session of the North East Development Summit on Tuesday, said the second round of bidding for the Udan (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme was in the final stages.

The second round of bidding commenced in August. The civil aviation ministry has received as many as 141 proposals for operating flights and helicopter services on 502 routes, connecting 126 airports and helipads.

Sinha said there are 19 "new or underserved airports" like Moreh in Manipur, Rupsi in Assam and Tura in Meghalaya, which are going to get air services.

He also announced a direct bi-weekly Air India flight from Delhi to Imphal from January.

It will be made a daily service when the demand picks up.

Private carrier IndiGo will soon start services from Guwahati to Silchar and Aizawl, Sinha said.

He also announced that SpiceJet would be procuring seaplanes that could seat nine to 10 passengers and land on smaller airstrips.

"The carrier is buying a large number of these seaplanes and is looking to operate in the Northeast, connecting smaller airstrips. This will also improve connectivity in the region," Sinha said.

Udan has enabled the government to add 30 new airports on the aviation map in tier-2 and tier-3 cities under the first round of bidding.