In an effort to give a final shape to the much-awaited aviation policy, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Tuesday held discussions with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, with both emphasising on making it "consumer-oriented and liberal".
Emerging after an hour-long meeting, Kamal Nath told reporters, "We will soon have an aviation policy, which is consumer-oriented and liberal and where quality is not compromised."
He said there was a need for an aviation policy at the earliest so that the "right message" was sent to the investors, including the foreign ones.
"The aviation policy should have been in place long time back but the previous government did not give it a serious thought," Nath said.
To a question whether any time-frame had been fixed for the announcement of the policy, Patel said, "We are at initial stages and our endeavour is to have it very soon".
Patel said he would hold discussions with other concerned ministers, including external affairs, finance and tourism.
Official sources, however, said the draft policy would be ready by the month-end.
Asked whether the Naresh Chandra Committee recommendations would be the basis of the policy, Patel said, "It is a working paper and I will be meeting the members of this committee soon".
To a question whether there were any differences on the issue of foreign direct investment between the aviation and commerce ministries, Nath said, "There is none at all. There is nothing wrong if the FDI has been capped at 49 per cent.
"If someone builds a greenfield airport with 100 per cent FDI, we don't have problems at all. We also do not have problems if someone comes at below the cap of 49 per cent, they can even come at 25 per cent," Nath said.
Asked whether private carriers would be allowed to fly to foreign destinations other than SAARC nations, he said, "The private players have played a major role in the aviation sector and they have done well. We would allow them to consolidate their economies of scale first before allowing them to operate to other foreign destinations."
On the 'open sky' policy, Nath and Patel said efforts were on to enhance seat availability for foreign destinations.
Patel said after finalisation, the draft policy would go to the Union Cabinet for approval, but did not give a timeframe.
