Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said today the government was working on a new policy which will propel India among top five markets in the world by providing access to safe and affordable air services with a strong regulatory framework and world-class infrastructure facilities.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation will also consider the proposal to work out a separate air cargo policy as 200 freighter aircraft will be required in the next 20 years to meet the industry’s demand, he said following the ASSOCHAM submitted an action plan to bail out the Civil Aviation sector from current financial crisis.
Narayana Rao, chairman of ASSOCHAM committee on civil aviation and infrastructure, D.S. Rawat, secretary general, and Ajay Sharma, senior director, met Ajit Singh and urged him to push for separate budgetary allocation and land for developing airports across the country. Upgrading infrastructure, attracting domestic investments and easing norms on foreign direct investments are essential so that the sector can grow annually by eight per cent and raise freight traffic from 23.5 lakh tonnes now to 70 lakh tonnes in the next ten years, according to ASSOCHAM.
ASSOCHAM said air freight stations should be established in hinterlands to decongest warehouse and offset limitations of space. They should have facilities for palletisation, customs examination and X-ray screening. There should be cargo facilities at tier II and III cities as alternate growth centers. The dwell time at Indian airports is 40 to 120 hours as compared to international average of 4 to 12 hours. There is need for establishing an Air Cargo Promotional Board for further organised growth and deployment of air cargo hubs across the country.
ASSOCHAM called for introducing fiscal incentives and innovative funding solutions to overcome constraints being faced by airport operators. Indian carriers catered to 5.4 crore domestic and 1.3 crore international passengers in 2010-11. But in spite of enormous growth and increasing trend towards moving to the low cost model, airlines suffered a loss of over Rs 20,000 crore in the past three years. Airlines are expected to add 370 aircraft worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore by 2016-17. (NSS)