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Dec 2006

Parliamentary panel on Civil Aviation meets

     New Delhi: The Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Civil Aviation met here today under the chairmanship of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and reviewed different aspects of the sector. Briefing the members about the growth in the aviation sector, Patel told them that while there was 45 percent growth in the domestic sector, the growth in the international sector was upwards of 20 percent. He said that the challenge that now faced the civil aviation sector was in the area of infrastructure- both physical infrastructure and trained manpower. Appreciating the efforts of the Civil Aviation Ministry and its undertakings for being able to provide this boost in the civil aviation sector, the members present at the meeting also highlighted a number of issues and drew the attention of the Ministry towards them. Some of the issues discussed at the meeting were improvement of ground services by airlines in Indian and foreign airports, disturbance of schedules of Air India due to VIP movement, delays in completion of the Calicut Airport, increasing connectivity, including international connectivity to Bhubhaneshwar Airport, development of Chandigarh Airport to cater to the three states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Issues relating to development of the Indore Airport, more international connectivity to the Amritsar Airport to lessen congestion at the Delhi Airport as well as to initiate the second phase of development of the Amritsar Airport, health of the civil aviation sector due to financial implication of indiscriminate pricing by low cost carriers, sharing of security and ground handling by airlines, high price of ATF and its likelihood to be brought under declared goods to bring down the tax component, representation of the employees in the core group for AI-IA merger, privatisation of Nagpur Airport, expansion of Kolkata Airport, functioning of the Tripartite Committee for Airports, also figured in the discussions at the meeting. Expressing "deep concern" over the shortage of pilots in the country and the facilities for pilot training, most of the members underlined the need to resolve this matter. The Ministry assured them that the capacity of flying training institute Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademy (IGRUA) had been enhanced and a new flying training institute was coming up at Gondia, Maharahstra. "Approval had been given to five more training institutes and flying clubs were being upgraded with new equipment and were being given more aircrafts. Foreign pilots were being given license to fly on passing the DGCA's examination of Aircraft Rules based on ICAO," said a Civil Aviation Ministry release. Patel told them that to overcome the shortage of instructors at IGRUA, it had been made mandatory for private carriers to provide instructors to the Akademy on a part time basis. Two Indian Airforce Officers had also joined IGRUA as Instructors. The Ministry was also exploring the possibility of giving management contract of the Akademy to a large reputed international company to bring it up to international standards, he said. Members of Parliament who were present at the meeting were Tusharbhai A. Choudhary, Madhu Goud Yashki, Rahul Gandhi, Santosh Gangwar, Tapir Gao, Ratilal K. Verma, Ashok Argal, Ramswaroop Koli, Tarit Baran Topdar, Anandrao Vithoba Adsul, Sumitra Mahajan, Dr. (Prof.) Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Dr. Rajesh Kumar Mishra, Santosh Bagrodia, Dr. Najma A. Heptulla, Tarlochan Singh, Dinesh Trivedi, Abdul Wahab Peevee, Sanjay Raut, Dr. Vijay Mallya and Rajeev Shukla.
-Dec 20, 2006