Five no-frills airports to come up in four States
Nine months after the DGCA downgrade in the aviation safety rankings, a Federal Aviation Administration team is likely to visit India soon to review the corrective measures taken by the Indian aviation regulator to meet the deficiencies listed by its US counterpart. This was stated by the Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on the occasion of the initiatives taken by the Ministry in the last 100 days, from May to August this year.
“We would like India to be Category-I as soon as possible. We invited them (FAA) to visit DGCA for a review in September or October, when our team went to the US and made a presentation to them last month,” Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has said .
He said the FAA team would be visiting India and “I am sure India will return to Category-I.” FAA had conducted two safety audits last year in India and downgraded India’s aviation safety ranking to Category-II from the top category as it found deficiencies in over 30 counts. These included lack of technical manpower like flight inspectors, a large number of whom have now been recruited.
To a question on DGCA serving showcause notices to 131 pilots of Jet Airways for not clearing necessary checks, he said “there can be no compromise on safety... DGCA is expected to act according to the law and they are doing it... It will definitely act as per the law.”
Asked about aviation bodies Air India, AAI and AERA “remaining headless”, Raju said “we don’t intend to keep any organisation headless. We are taking care that the work does not suffer. But there is a procedure through which such vacancies are filled up and that is being followed.”
While Air India CMD Rohit Nandan is on a three-month extension that ends in October, the post of AAI Chairman is being occupied by its Board member S Raheja till a full-time chief is appointed.
Regarding Air India’s financial position, Raju said the state-run airline had shown “major improvements” in its load factors and yields. Government has released Rs 3,833 crore in the first quarter of 2014-15 against the total allocation of Rs 6,600 crore for the entire financial year, he said. Raju also said that the MoCA has plans to float five no-frills airports would come up in four states and the work would begin in the next six months.
The airports, which have been shortlisted from 50 cities and towns in remote areas and various unconnected regions across the country, would come up at Tezu (Arunachal Pradesh), Kishangarh (Rajasthan), Jharsuguda (Odisha), Hubli and Belgaum (Karnataka), Raju said.