NEW DELHI: Towards streamlining the procedure of granting Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has devised a computerised written test for the aspirants.

Sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry said the facility at the DGCA's R.K. Puram centre would be inaugurated this month by Minister Praful Patel. Those desirous of getting a CPL would have to bring a bank draft for the required amount and appear in the exam on a scheduled date."We have devised an objective type computerised test for giving the CPL. It will be of two hours duration and the result will be available right there on the spot. The aspirants will get five minutes for a briefing on the procedure. The clock will be timed for the next 120 minutes and the computer itself will announce the score, which should be 70 out of 100,'' officials said. The new procedure would be transparent and do away with the possibility of manipulating the score or helping a candidate.

As new airlines dot the Indian skies, scheduled airlines operators were feeling an estimated shortfall of 619 commercial pilots, which also includes the shortfall made good by deployment of foreigners as pilot commanders. Though the DGCA rules stipulate three sets of cabin crew for each aircraft, some of the airlines have kept five sets of crew each.

Age limit

The Government has taken steps to reduce the gap between demand and supply of skilled pilots. These include conditionally increasing the age limit to 65 years for pilots for exercising the privileges of their licences for commercial transport operations, upgrading the Rae Bareilly-based Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA) to enhance its training capacity, setting up a world class flying training institute at Gondia, near Nagpur, and assistance to flying clubs by allocating trainer aircraft through the DGCA and Aero Club of India. At present, there are 40 flying clubs approved by the DGCA, and of these 17 are engaged in providing flying training up to CPL level.

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