Aviation is an integral part of the overall economic set up of a country. It plays a major role in generating travel and tourism as well as in integrating the whole nation. The aviation sector in India has shown a phenomenal growth in recent years, with a large number of companies providing passenger traffic and cargo handling services in the country. It has witnessed a boom in domestic passenger carriage, cargo movement and international air traffic. For example, comparing the figures of April-January (2006-07) with those of 2005-06 of same period, total air passenger traffic increased by 32.6% with around 78.7 million passengers taking the air route; passengers taking the domestic air route amounted to 57.5 million reflecting an increase of 40.5%; and international air passenger traffic increased by 15% with around 21.2 million passengers taking international air route.
In India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is the nodal Ministry responsible for development and regulation of civil aviation sector through formulation of national policies and programmes; devising and implementing schemes for the orderly growth and expansion of civil air transport. Its functions also extend to overseeing airport facilities, air traffic services, carriage of passengers and goods by air; safeguarding civil aviation operations; licensing of aerodomes, air carriers, pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers, etc.
Besides, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is responsible for providing safe and efficient air traffic services; plan, develop, construct and maintain runway, taxiways, terminal buildings,etc. It manages 127 airports, including 15 international airports, 87 domestic airports and 25 civil enclaves at defence airfields. It thus controls and manages the entire Indian Air Space of 2.8 million nautical miles square.
In consonance with liberalisation of the Indian economy, the civil aviation sector has also been opened up successively in order to attract private investment into its various segments. The most important step being the revamping and modernisation of airports as well as the setting up of new greenfield airports. The Government has finalized the restructuring of two international airports at Delhi and Mumbai through public-private partnership in the joint venture mode. Two greenfield airport projects at Bangalore and Hyderabad are being implemented on Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) basis with public-private partnership.
Also, several policy measures and initiatives undertaken by the Ministry, unfold various opportunities and incentives for investment in the sector. For instance, the 'Civil Aviation Policy' aims to maintain a competitive civil aviation environment which ensures safety and security in accordance with international standards; promotes efficient, cost-effective and orderly growth of air transport; and contributes to social and economic development of the country.
Similarly, the 'Policy on Airport Infrastructure' has been formulated to regulate the use and development of airport infrastructure. The objectives of the policy are :-
- To provide airport capacity ahead of demand, in order to handle an increasing volume of air traffic and to garner the maximum share of traffic in the region;
- To ensure total safety and security of aircraft operations by the introduction of state-of-art air traffic, security and related services;
- To bridge the resource gap and encourage greater efficiency and enterprise in the operation of airports, through the introduction of private capital and management skills;
- To foster the development of a strong airport infrastructure, maintaining a balance between the need for economic viability and the objective of equitable regional dispersal of infrastructural facilities; etc.
For more details visit our Section on 'Infrastructure'
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