New Delhi: Indian aviation, flaunted as a sunshine sector during the UPA-1 regime, has now become an international embarrassment. Still, the US downgrade of Indian aviation safety ranking is being seen as a last-ditch attempt to get the Indian government to move on strengthening the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Since 1998, there has been no recruitment in DGCA. It was only in the past few months, when the sword of the FAA downgrade came too close, that the government took some last-minute steps. But all of them are on paper and implementing them will still take a long time.
In the 1990s, when India had only Air India and Indian Airlines with combined a fleet 60 to 70 aircraft, the DGCA had 200 officers. Today when India has over 10 airlines and the fleet is of more than 800 planes, the regulator has just 400 officers — 250 of its own and 150 on secondment or hired from airlines.
Read News In full 01/02/14 Economic Times
No comments:
Post a Comment