DGCA to CAA: Autonomy for aviation?
The Bill pertaining to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the converted form of DGCA, is likely to get the nod from the government of India during forthcoming winter session of the Parliament, says Arun Mishra, DGCA.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) office in India, which is primarily responsible for safeguarding the safety and security of air travellers by implementing set guidelines/rules and regulations for airlines as well as airports, is becoming more powerful as an organisation and regulating authority. The new Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will be completely autonomous in character and will not have to be dependent on the Ministry of Civil Aviation as regard to financial matter and the UPSC for recruitment procedure. Currently, the DGCA office requires more than 400 people to be recruited to streamline its day to day functions. Though it had started the recruitment process early last year for more than 100 people for various posts, the final appointment could not happen owing to the long procedure of UPSC.
“After establishing CAA, we will have more administrative and financial powers which will help us to meet the challenges of the growing sector. The fee we collect from airlines now goes to the Consolidated Fund of India. We have powers but they are very limited.
In addition, we can also take quick decision of strengthening our manpower for the greater interest of the civil aviation industry in the country, as well as in the region,” said Mishra during his interaction with at a function organised on the eve of the recently held 49th DGCA Asia Pacific Conference in New Delhi.
According to the DGCA sources, the regulation authority does not have any financial crisis. CAA will have annual earnings of around
` 140 crore a year, which will be enough for making them financially independent. A major part of the earnings will come from fee charged for giving out licences to start airlines operations in India. The regulating authority is also the licensing authority for pilots and flying clubs. In addition, it approves training programmes of operators for carriage of dangerous goods and issues authorisations for carriage of dangerous goods, etc.
Emphasising on the growing importance of empowering the DGCA (to CAA) he pointed out the potential of India as one of the viable civil aviation hub in the Asia Pacific region. In his opinion, the successful completion of the ‘49th DGCA Conference’, which happened for the second time in New Delhi, would further strengthen the image of the country.
Meanwhile, the country is witnessing a significant growth as regard to air
passenger traffic (though sluggish at present). The projection is also very promising. During the last 10 years, compounded annual growth of passenger traffic has been approximately 15 per cent. The key trend of the business model of the Indian carriers in the domestic operation is that domestic traffic is rapidly shifting to Low Cost Carrier model. From a level of about one per cent in 2003-04, the market share of LCC including the LCC arm of full service carriers is today exceeding 70 per cent of total domestic traffic. Despite slowdown international passenger traffic in India has witnessed a growth of 5.4 per cent during the period from January-August 2012 compared to corresponding period in the year 2011. The liberalised bilateral policy that the Government of India is following is expected to give a big push to the international traffic to and from India. The growth in air traffic would definitely put pressure on Indian airports.
Apart from modernisation of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and several non-metro airports in the country, and launching of Greenfield Airports in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, Government of India has also granted in- principle approval of setting up 15 new Greenfield Airports. A total of ` 24, 132 crore is proposed to be made available for the development of airports in 12th Five Year Plan.
Subsequently, overseeing the safety and security aspects would be huge.
“We are optimistic that the regulation authority would be able to function effectively after the establishment of CAA, with a changing face, for the greater interest of the civil aviation industry as well as economy of the country,” Mishra concluded.