National Aviation University on the cards

Updated on: Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A national aviation university to remedy the dearth of skilled human resource in the aviation sector, a civil aviation authority to make the country’s aviation regulator independent administratively and financially, an independent air accident investigation bureau, an ombudsman to handle passenger concerns, a task force for aviation security, and restructuring of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to handle security concerns better. These are the top projects that the civil aviation ministry has embarked upon as India expects to see passenger traffic of 30 crore by 2020.

In short, the government is going for a near-complete overhaul of the existing system to equip itself for the future.

The government has begun working on all these proposals; there are no deadlines though, said minister for civil aviation Vayalar Ravi in a press briefing held on Monday. “A committee of experts has been set up to make the project report for the national aviation university. The ministry has approved the formation of an independent civil aviation authority and it is under examination by the law ministry,” said civil aviation secretary, Dr Nasim Zaidi. The press meet was held at the end of day one of the week-long International Civil Aviation Negotiation Conference (ICAN 2011). ICAN, held under the aegis of the Montreal-based UN body International Civil Aviation Organisation, provides a platform for aviation negotiators from different countries to conduct bilateral air services negotiations. Indian representatives will be holding negotiations on agreements with 35 countries, including Oman, Saudi Arabia, US, Austria, Switzerland. Roberto Gonzalez, president, council of International Civil Aviation Organisation said that by 2030, the number of passengers from Asia-Pacific region will double from 2-6 billion to 5 billion.

President Pratibha Patil, in her inaugural speech, said that global comparison of air travel penetrations shows that India, with 0.04 air trips per capita per annum, stands far behind developed countries with more than two air trips per capita per annum. “One of the key achievements of India in the last decade has been to set up an independent regulator for economic regulation of airports by an Act of Parliament, with appropriate provision of an appellate body,” she said.

National Aviation University on the cards

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