E-Paper
Amausi airport flying without operations licence!
TIME IS running out for Amausi airport authorities to obtain a licence from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to continue operating beyond March 31, 2007. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to ensure that all the 126 airports have valid licences to handle aircraft, passenger and cargo operations before being allowed to function in the country.
Get one or shut down: DGCA
TIME IS running out for Amausi airport authorities to obtain a licence from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to continue operating beyond March 31, 2007.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to ensure that all the 126 airports have valid licences to handle aircraft, passenger and cargo operations before being allowed to function in the country.
A circular issued to the AAI, dated October 16, 2006, read thus: The Central Government’s rules for licencing of aerodromes are contained in Part XI of the Aircraft Rules, 1937. The ‘Rule 78’ requires that no aerodrome be used as a regular place for landing and departure by a scheduled air transport service or for a series of landing and departure by any aircraft or cargo for hire or reward unless it has been licensed”
The licence requires the airport authorities to acquire clearance by Union Ministry of Forests & Environment, Ministry of Defence, besides district administration and local bodies for handling passengers, cargo, aircraft handling operations at the airport.
The DGCA has asked AAI to inform authorities of 126 airports in the country, including Amausi, to obtain a licence after receiving due clearance from district administration, local bodies, union ministry of Environment and Forests and Ministry of Defence, or shut down operations after March 31, 2007.
“We have yet to receive any communication either from AAI or DGCA on obtaining clearances from local authorities for handling aircraft and passengers at the Amausi airport,” a senior official of the AAI told HT Lucknow Live on grounds of anonymity.
“Clearance required by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Defence might have been taken up by the AAI headquarters in New Delhi. Locally, nobody is aware of the new development as no directives had been received by us from AAI to apply for clearances by district adminisration and the local bodies,” he said.
The only airports with valid licence to handle aircraft and passengers in the country right now are Mumbai, New Delhi, Puttaparthy, Lengpui and Cochin.
The DGCA, it was learnt, has already come up with a detailed set of guidelines to license aircraft and passenger handling operations at airports in the country.
