India’s Tallest Air Traffic Control Tower Inaugurated

Ministry of Civil aviation has undertaken many initiatives in the past 100 days in the direction of enabling affordable flying and healthy aviation sector growth. Some of the key initiatives are-

            India’s tallest Air Traffic Control tower was inaugurated earlier this month at the Indira Gandhi International Airport which will ensure up-scaled services and systems for efficient, smooth and uninterrupted air traffic management.

            The airports of Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangaluru have been awarded to a private concessionaire through Public Private Partnership (PPP) to bring efficiency in delivery, expertise, enterprise and professionalism apart from harnessing the needed investments in the public sector.

            ‘Aviation Jobs’ is a unique web-based portal launched by Ministry of Civil Aviation on 29.08.2019, which seeks to bring together job seekers and prospective employers in the Indian civil aviation sector. It is a common platform for enabling candidates to register their job interests across various sub-sectors. At the same time it facilitates sourcing of information about candidates available in the market by prospective employers with a view to improve prospects for employment or re-employment in the civil aviation ecosystem

            34 routes have been operationalized, awarded under round 1, 2 and 3 / Tourism RCS. These 34 RCS routes provide connectivity to 4 unserved (Jharsuguda, Mysore, Kolhapur and Jalgaon) and 4 underserved (Gwalior, Belgaum, Durgapur and Shillong) airports connecting 10 served (Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa, Kochi, Rajahmundry and Vizag) airports under the scheme.

As part of Digital initiatives the Ministry has taken up 

• eDGCA project conceptualized to completely automate the processes and functions of DGCA and its constituent directorates as well as to provide a strong base for IT infrastructure and service delivery framework. The work on development of various modules including licensing of pilots is under progress.
• DigiSky– an online portal to regulate the entire gamut of activities relating to governance and operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)/Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs)/drones has been made operational. While ensuring safety and security in drone operations, it will also help in promotion of drone technologies.
•  Esahaj-100% of security clearances pertaining to the Ministry have been made online on Esahaj online portal launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The portal is operational for granting clearances in respect of 24 categories.
• DigiYatra Trial for rollout of DigiYatra initiative has been started at Bangalore and Hyderabad airports. The initiative envisages seamless and hassle free passenger travel using biometric technologies to improve passenger experience, reduce queue waiting time as passengers can walk through e-gates by using advanced security solutions. It will remove redundancies at check points and enhance resource utilization.

            Passenger Service Fee (PSF) now called Aviation Security Fee (ASF) charged as part of passenger fare and collected by the airlines which is deposited in the escrow account of respective JVs or AAI account has been rationalized and a National Trust has been created to pool all the ASF collections across airports. The trust is to be managed by AAI. The collection of PSF(SC)/ASF in a single pool account will serve the purpose of cross subsidizing the smaller airports of AAI with low PSF(SC)/ASF collection thus bridging the funding gap.