New Delhi: “During the current year, cargo sector has registered a phenomenal growth of 10% over the previous year”, said Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju while Chairing the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Safety Measure in Civil Aviation Sector here today. He informed the Members that the Government has a plan to create a “Civil Aviation Authority of India” in place of DGCA to ensure efficiency in its procedures with ease of recruitment of skilled manpower. It will strengthen the system’s ability to cope with emerging safety challenges of the growth of the sector in the long run.
He added DGCA has issued various regulations for carrying out India’s obligation to the Chicago Convention and advisories to the industry regarding election flying, seasonal helicopter operations, real time tracking of the aircrafts etc. In accordance with the standard and recommended practices of ICAO, DGCA has developed State Safety Programme for India which is available on DGCA website.
In accordance with the ICAO SARPs, India has also established State Safety Programme which is to be implemented in the phased manner. As part of Phase III implementation, DGCA has established seven key State safety priorities i.e. Airborne conflict, Controlled flight into terrain, Runway excursions and overruns, Wildlife and bird strikes, Loss of control in flight, Ground collisions and ramp safety and deficient maintenance. To meet the safety target for the years 2015 and 2016, safety action plan has been developed in association with the stake holders.
DGCA has also strengthened its voluntary reporting system under which occurrences that are not required to be reported under regulations, but are safety related and may be potential hazard, can be reported via voluntary (and anonymous) reporting system to DGCA (HQ). A system of analysis of the occurrence data including accidents/serious incidents and the work undertaken by stakeholders in the development and implementation of their Safety Management System (SMS) States’ safety priorities, objectives and safety performance indicators have been established.
The Minister also said India became the fourth country in the world with the implementation of GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) a joint project by AAI & ISRO to provide the certified satellite base augmentation services over Indian Flight Information Region, thus pitch-forking India as one of the elite Nations in the world to provide a platform for transition to Satellite Based Navigation. The GAGAN services are available since 14th February 2014. The second phase of certification to provide approach with vertical guidance (APV 1/1.5) is expected to be completed by this month which will provide vertical guidance to runways enhancing airport utilization under bad weather conditions.
The meeting was attended by Shri AP Jithender Reddy, Shri E. Ahamed, Shri FS Kulaste, Shri S Rajendran, Shri T Chhewang, Shri V B Raut, Shri Praful Patel, Shri PC Gupta, Shri VJ Darda and Shri VP Nishad. Minister of State for Civil Aviaiton, Dr. Mahesh Sharma delivered the vote of thanks.
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