Press Trust of India
Hyderabad, Dec 28: The NDA government’s new aviation policy is in the final stages and it will be referred to the Cabinet for approval, even as the draft policy received over three lakh views and suggestions, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said Monday.
“Aviation policy has reached the final stages…and I think we have to do one or two more sittings. We (in Government of India) have a procedure…we have to put a Cabinet note and then decisions will be arrived at. And once the decisions are arrived at, it will be a question of implementability,” Raju said. “Lot of discussions has taken place. For the first time suggestions on the draft policy had been called and three lakh odd people have given their suggestions including for and against…so, whatever it is all that has been sorted out and they are working on it,” he said.
Replying to a query on the 5/20 rule, the minister said it would come up before Cabinet, which will take a final call. The 5/20 rule bars domestic airlines from flying overseas unless they have completed five years of domestic flying and have a fleet of 20 aircraft. Many Indian carriers, including Air India, have been strongly opposing abolishing the rule. Replying to another query, Raju said, “Technically, we have three modern airports in the country that can have parallel runways – Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. For a country like India’s size, two on the west coast and two more on the east coast are needed.”
