The Hindu Business Line : Naresh Chandra Committee Report-II: Lift for copter operations

To give a boost to helicopter operations,the Naresh Chandra panel has suggested that the corporate sector be encouraged to set up heliports on their premises consistent with safety standards and controls and operate them with the help of trained staff.

IN ITS second part of the Report, released last week, the Naresh Chandra Committee has made a number of suggestions, including facilitating helicopter operations, involving greater participation of State governments in building helipads and private sector airlines in sharing the financial burden of the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy (IGRUA).

The five-member committee was headed by the former Cabinet Secretary, Mr Naresh Chandra, and included the HDFC Chairman, Mr Deepak Parekh; the Planning Commission Advisor, Dr Pronab Sen; the former Civil Aviation Secretary, Mr K. Roy Paul; and the former Civil Aviation Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Mr V. Subramanian. To give a boost to helicopter operations, the Committee has suggested that the corporate sector be encouraged to set up heliports on their premises consistent with safety standards and controls and operate them with the help of trained staff.

The report suggests that the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) evolve guidelines on safety standards and the minimum number of trained personnel required to ensure safe operations.

Besides, as the heliports need to be licensed to operate after a technical inspection by the DGCA, the report has suggested a provision to renew the heliport licence periodically, say, every three years. It limits the role of the DGCA to setting standards, initial inspection for licensing, and periodic inspections for renewals.

Dealing with helipads, the report said that it would be best if State governments constructed them.

The report has also suggested that initially the Centre could fund part of the cost of construction of about 100 helipads so as to encourage the State governments.

"It would be ideal if State governments could be encouraged to construct helipads — say, one per district on sites cleared by the DGCA. These could be in police lines or in college/school play grounds among other areas," the report adds.

To streamline helicopter movement from Delhi and Mumbai airports, which have seen a manifold increase in traffic the past few years, the report suggested that heliports be developed at sites, which would not pose any hindrance to the aerodrome traffic and also called for separate routes/air corridors for helicopters.

The report has also made a number of suggestions for pilot training including that it would be `appropriate' if the financial burden of IGRUA could be borne by private operators as well.

"In this respect some norms for contribution should be evolved — for example, a fixed percentage, say, 0.01 per cent of their annual revenue or Rs 100,000 per aircraft in their fleet — to meet the IGRUA expenses," the report suggested.

IGRUA is a non-profit organisation set up to improve the standard of flying training in the country and is supported by grant-in-aid from the Centre, Air India (AI) and Indian Airlines (IA). Besides, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) also gives occasional grants to the Academy.

Besides these suggestions, the Committee has also called for considering allowing non-scheduled airlines to publish their schedules and issuing a single permit to allow operators to undertake both domestic and international cargo operations.

It has also suggested that the validity of the operating permit for both scheduled and non-scheduled operators should be increased.

Now, the permit for both category of airlines is valid only for one year. The Committee has suggested that it be extended to five years in the case of scheduled operators and three years for non-scheduled operators.

To enhance airport capacity, the Committee has suggested that as a long-term measure, action should be taken to construct parallel runways at least at all the international airports, where feasible, and at the greenfield airports.