Defence airspace and airport infrastructure open up for civil use
24 Jan 2007
According to ministry officials, the proposal at a broad level intends to maximise air space utilisation in the Indian skies, as the agreement will enable domestic carriers to use defence airfields when they are not in use. The two ministries in question have carved out five zones, North, South, East, West and Central, for better conduct of operations.
Joint management of air space, by the two ministries, will help the government ease congestion in the skies, especially those at major airports such as Delhi and Mumbai. With weather factors, such as fog, increasingly playing the devil in airline operations, diverted planes will now be able to land and take off from the nearest defence airport.
Of the estimated 450 airports and airstrips in the country, only 125 are under the management of Airports Authority of India, while the remainder come under the purview of the defence ministry. The agreement between the two ministries would also result in cost efficiencies, as civilian planes can utilise air corridors, reserved for defence use thus far, to minimise distances between two points.
The two ministries have constituted working groups, comprising of officials from the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) and the Indian air force, to facilitate the joint management process, and also, they have finalised operational procedures of the joint management project. The working groups will synchronise work for each zone.
According to officials the two ministries are now working out the technical aspects of these project in order to facilitate speedy implementation.
