India to develop aviation hubs
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The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is looking at the development of aviation hubs in India.
Minister for Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh informed that the government has approved the proposal of MoCA to constitute an inter-ministerial committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Civil Aviation. The inter-ministerial committee will set up various measures to overcome the bottlenecks in the development of aviation hubs at various airports in India. The airports include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.
The following bottlenecks have been identified and need rectification:
– Need to coordinate the development of tourism and promotion of brand ‘India’ in a concerted manner
– Visa norms need to be liberalised. Visa-on-Arrival to be extended to as many countries as possible.
– Present instructions issued by India impose conditions on Indian passport holders as well as the foreign nationals with regards to carrying/spending Indian currency
– Exchange of their left over Indian currency into foreign currency in the security hold area respectively which acts as an impediment in development of hubs
– ATF price and taxation pose a road block for development of aviation hubs
– Service charge on air travel needs to be withdrawn in order to make air travel more attractive to passengers
– Rules and legislations dealing with trans-shipment cargo also needs to be streamlined to facilitate growth in trans shipment cargo
– Encourage MRO business
– Issues regarding confluence flights relating to immigration, security check.
In the last 10 years, India has witnessed a traffic growth rate of 15 to 18% in the aviation sector. Once the inter-ministerial group submits its recommendations, the government expects to implement them within the shortest possible timeframe, stated a PIB release.
