The Government is planning to reconstitute India’s aviation regulatory body as an autonomous one and has asked International Civil Aviation Organisation to carry out the feasibility and advisory study in this regard.
“International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has been asked to carry out feasibility study for reconstitution of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as an autonomous civil aviation body with enhanced financial and administrative authority,” Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Thursday.
He also said between January 2009 and February this year, the DGCA has carried out 1,414 surveillance and safety inspections of which 14 were found to be Class I deficiencies.
Between January and December last year, Air India and its subsidiaries had 663 cases of Class II and three Class I deficiencies. Kingfisher had 190, Jet Airways and Jetlite combined had 283, SpiceJet had 62, IndiGo had 48, Go Air had 122 and MDLR had 15 Class II deficiencies.
Four Class I and 355 level II deficiencies were reported from Paramount, Blue Dart Aviation had one level I and 152 level II deficiencies, he said, adding the DGCA had forwarded its observations to the concerned airlines.
In response to another question, he said, the country has witnessed seven helicopter accidents in the last three years in which 15 people have lost their lives and to avoid air accidents, the DGCA has initiated various accident prevention programmes.
