Major proposals relating to the aviation sector, including allowing the private domestic carriers to fly abroad and share the burden of operating on the commercially unviable but socially important routes, are being considered by a panel set up by the government to formulate the new civil aviation policy.
Stating this in New Delhi on Thursday, Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy told a press conference that the private carriers were playing "a major and positive role in the domestic aviation sector and they should get a level-playing field."
The policy, he said, would be finalised by October, even as the five-member Naresh Chandra committee met on Thursday in its bid to evolve a roadmap for the civil aviation sector.
The committee, besides deliberating on the future role of Air-India and Indian Airlines, would also consider suggestions to raise the cap of foreign direct investment in the aviation sector, allowing of private domestic carriers to fly abroad, allowing foreign airlines to invest in domestic sector and setting up of a regulatory body for airport privatisation.
In view of the recent helicopter crashes, Rudy said the ministry was considering creating a separate cell under the directorate general of civil aviation and appoint a flight inspector exclusively for chopper operations in the country.
Rudy also said a proposal for the privatisation of airports at Mumbai and Delhi would be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval in the next ten days.
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