Aviation body to licence air traffic controller
Move by DGCA in view of India’s poor ranking in global safety audit
India and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN global aviation watchdog, has differed on the authority to license air-traffic controller.
The difference has resulted in the ICAO giving a low score to India after a safety oversight audit.
Senior civil aviation ministry officials on Monday said India’s score after the latest ICAO audit fell to 57.44 per cent from 65.82 per cent.
According to the latest ICAO audit data, India is placed below neighbours Pakistan, Nepal and many other countries.
Following this, the government has decided to entrust the regulation of airtraffic controllers with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The DGCA is developing a system to oversee the controllers of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The ICAO told the civil aviation ministry there was a need for an independent regulatory oversight by the DGCA of the AAI with respect to air-traffic control, officials said.
At present, the AAI regulates as well as provides services of air-traffic controllers.
According to DGCA chief B S Bhullar, if the ICAO had not taken this aspect into consideration, India’s score after the audit would have been 71.13 per cent.
The ICAO did an audit of India under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme in November last year and again another team came in February this year.
The score is based on eight areas, including primary aviation legislation and aviation regulations, civil aviation organisation, personnel licensing, and training.
Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said the ICAO did not raise serious safety concerns after the audit.
The safety and security of Indian aviation would not be compromised, he added.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) on Monday started an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The audit will cover three key areas — operations, airworthiness, and pilots' licensing mechanism.
Since 2013, this will be the third audit of the domestic aviation regulator by the FAA. In 2013, the American regulator had downgraded the safety ranking of the Indian aviation sector and it was restored in 2015.