MoCA, DGCA ease handling of ‘dangerous’ air cargo
It’s a double delight for the air cargo industry. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has assured to validate institutes imparting training on dangerous goods while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has extended the validity of Dangerous Goods Regulations till June 30.
It was that reported about the issue for the first time on April 23.
The notifications would allow agents to handle dangerous goods (DG) shipments and training institutes shall be allowed to provide reqiured training to handle DG, which had stopped for want of procedures and what is going to be taught, said CK Govil, President, Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI), the national association representing the Indian businessline air cargo industry. In the last few days, clearance of DG and even air lifting of non-DG, was in trouble, due to issues related to CompetencyBased Training and Assessment (CBTA) effective April 1, 2024.
LACK OF TRAINING
There was a lack of accessible training pertinent to DG and no training institute has been “re-certified” by the DGCA. This affected IATA certified freight forwarders.
ACAAI wrote to the DGCA stating its members across India had been trained hitherto through DGCA-approved institutes. However, consequent to the implementation of the CBTA from April 1, 2024, the DGCA approval of DG Training Programme has reportedly not been renewed after it expired on March 31, 2024.
The association’s members have to comply with the guidelines of DGCA and
IATA. However, due to absence of DGC- approved DG Training institute from April 1, 2024, employees of the association’s members would neither be able to get trained in the ‘basic’ nor in the ‘refresher’ programme. This will put their business at severe risk, loss as well as compliance, the association had said.
After a meeting between members of ACAAI and Civil Aviation Secretary, the MoCA on Thursday said that by the end of May, 2024 at least 12 organisations (almost 70 per cent of the organisations conducting DG training) would be available to impart the training. So, there is no institutional shortage. Extension of the validity of DG certificates expired or expiring between April 1, 2024 and May 31, 2024 is being considered up to June 30, 2024.
DGCA said for smooth transition from convention to CBTA Approach in Dangerous Goods Regulations Training, it has been decided to grant extension of eligibility period for recurrent training of all categories/functions of Dangerous Goods Regulations Training to meet the requirements of the CAR Section 11, Series C Part I, Issue IV dated January 25, 2023.
VALIDITY EXTENSION
Govil told businessline, that the extension given by MoCA is for the DG certificates, which have a validity of 24 months for the last recurrent training held. The certificates which had expired (i.e. persons trained in the month of April and May, 2022) will have the validity of the DG handling certificates post March 31, 2024 wherein the new ‘competence based training and assessment approach’ had been implemented by DGCA.
“Having a valid DG certificate is crucial for handling pharmaceutical items and biological samples. Sans a valid DG certificate, an agent cannot handle these shipments,” he said.
J Krishnan, of S Natesa Iyer Logistics LLP, a Chennai-based freight forwarder, said licencing of all personnel who are involved in shipping DG by air, requires mandatory training and certification by institutes approved by DGCA. This encompasses shippers, freight forwarders, terminal operators and airline sta.