The Hindu : Regulations for copters on the cards: Rudy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 28, 2003

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Regulations for copters on the cards: Rudy

By Vinay Kumar

UDAIPUR SEPT. 27. With the recent chopper crashes on his mind, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, today said the Government has appointed a committee to draft regulations for helicopter operations in the country.

He said the four-member committee would submit its report to the Civil Aviation Ministry within a month. ``Our aim is to make helicopter services more accessible, affordable and safe. We plan to create separate corridors for the helicopters and also examine the structure of landing charges and other levies imposed on the helicopter operators,'' he said.

In an informal interaction with the newspersons here, Mr. Rudy touched upon other initiatives being taken by his Ministry to open up the domestic aviation sector.

He said that chief executives of domestic carriers had been asked to draw up a plan to rationalise their routes and offer more and better choices to the customers. The thrust would be on greater synergy among Indian Airlines, Jet and Sahara. With five months into his new job, Mr. Rudy said that he had made efforts to stir up discussions among bureaucrats and officials in a bid to change their mindset where a passenger or customer was last in the priority list.

Making out a strong case for marketing and promoting India as a ``brand'' in the tourism sector, he said that tourism had a great potential which was still untapped. ``If the U.K. has a $ 37 billions strong tourism industry, why should we not make efforts to increase our market share?'' he asked.

His message was clear: ``integration'' of all elements to turn India an international tourist destination. For making it possible, he said, the Vajpayee Government had invested heavily in improving infrastructure like roads, ports, and airports and putting in place world class communication facilities.

Citing an example of wasteful expenditure without application of mind in the aviation sector, Mr. Rudy said that Rs. 12 crores were spent on acquiring and fitting door-frame metal detectors at airports but on his recent visits to several airports he discovered that none of them functioned after calibration.

Similarly, the prime building of Air India at Nariman Point in Mumbai had several floors vacant even though the international flag carrier was incurring losses.

On his visit to Udaipur, he also announced an expansion plan for the airport terminal building at a total cost of Rs. 110 crores which would have an ATC block, extended runway and better facilities.

He said the Ministry was examining a proposal to introduce direct flights to Bangkok from Jaipur as well as Haj flights. For Jaisalmer, a scheme is being drawn up to design a new terminal building on which the Ministry of Defence is being consulted.

Mr. Rudy's announcement in Rajasthan during his visit here assumes significance as elections to the State Assembly are only a couple of months away.

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