100 Days of Civil Aviation Ministry: India’s tallest air traffic control tower inaugurated

The Ministry of Civil aviation has undertaken several initiatives in the first 100 days of governance under Modi government 2.0 to boost growth in the aviation sector and enable affordable flying.

Following are some of the key initiatives:

India’s tallest Air Traffic Control tower inaugurated: The tallest Air Traffic Control tower was inaugurated in India earlier this month at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. The tower will ensure up-to-date services and systems for efficient, smooth and uninterrupted air traffic management.

Airports awarded on PPP to harness investments in Public Sector: Three Indian airports, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow were awarded to a private concessionaire through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to bring efficiency in delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism and also to harness investments in the public sector.

Online jobs portal launched for aviation sector: The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched a unique web-based portal called ‘Aviation Jobs’. The portal seeks to bring together prospective employers and job seekers in the civil aviation sector. It will not only enable candidates to register their job interests across various sub-sectors but also facilitate the sourcing of information about candidates available in the market by prospective employers to improve prospects for employment.

34 RCS routes operationalised: The Aviation Ministry operationalised 34 routes under round one, two and three of Tourism ‘Regional Connectivity Scheme’(RCS). The 34 RCS routes will provide connectivity to 4 unserved airports- Mysore, Jharsuguda, Kolhapur and Jalgaon and 4 underserved airports- Gwalior, Belgaum, Durgapur and Shillong connecting 10 served airports- Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa, Kochi, Rajahmundry and Vizag under the scheme.

Digital Initiatives of Aviation Ministry:

eDGCA project: The eDGCA project has been conceptualized to completely automate the processes and functions of DGCA and its constituent directorates and provide a strong base for IT infrastructure and service delivery framework. The work on the development of various modules including licensing of pilots is currently under progress.

DigiSky: The Ministry has operationalised DigiSky, which is an online portal that has been designed to regulate all activities relating to governance and operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) and Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs)/drones. Besides ensuring safety and security in drone operations, the portal will also help in the promotion of drone technologies.

Esahaj- The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched Esahaj online portal, which will provide all security clearances pertaining to the Aviation sector. The portal is operational for granting clearances in 24 categories.

DigiYatra: The Civil Aviation Ministry has already begun the trial rollout of the DigiYatra initiative at Bangalore and Hyderabad airports. The initiative aims to ensure a seamless and hassle-free passenger travel by using biometric technologies to improve the passenger experience. The initiative will remove redundancies at checkpoints and enhance resource utilization. It will reduce queue waiting time as passengers can walk through e-gates by using advanced security solutions.

Aviation Security Fee: The Aviation Security Fee, which is collected as a part of passenger fare and collected by the airlines, has been rationalized and a National Trust has been created to pool all the ASF collections across airports. The trust will be managed by AAI. The collection of ASF in a single pool account will help in cross-subsidizing of the smaller airports of AAI with low ASF collection thus bridging the funding gap.

India would also be receiving the Council President Certificate from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for its progress in resolving its safety oversight deficiencies and improving the Effective Implementation (EI). The certificate will be presented to India during a special ceremony at ICAO headquarters, Montreal during the 40th Session of the Assembly. 

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