Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews March 27, 2013 The saga of the elusive Civil Aviation Policy Draft  posted on the MoCA website for what seems decades, doesn’t say much for our planners and decision makers. Time the industry raised its voice as the loss will only be its own. We might remind ourselves that unless the draft becomes a policy, it will remain adhoc and victim to sudden unpalatable whims and fancies of those in power. Besides, investors might see this as a deterrent. But then, that’s our view at Aerospace Diary. Even as minister Ajit Singh remained non-committal on when the draft civil aviation policy would be approved, a quick search into the history of this elusive draft is disturbing and shows there is no will nor any need by the government to put a method into the madness. April 1, 1997-The civil aviation policy was cleared by the Cabinet during PM Deve Gowda’s time. Was it a coincidence that it was April Fool’s Day!? June 6, 1997- Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral ...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Nov 26, 2012 We enclose a letter to the Chief Information Commissioner, New Delhi by an RTI activist even as his RTI on allegations by former IA CMD Sunil Arora against former aviation minister Praful Patel, are ignored. Sign of things to come? Sir,  Kindly refer to esteemed order dated 23.10.2012 in my petition-number CIC/SM/C/2012/001035 whereby your honour was kind enough to direct Appellate Authority at Union Cabinet Secretariat to give me an opportunity to be heard by him to ensure providing of desired information without any further loss of time. Learned Appellate Authority at Union Cabinet Secretariat Shri Subhash Chandra Garg summoned me for hearing on 20.11.2012 at 11 am, which was telephonically postponed for 6 pm on the same date. He was kind enough to allow query-numbers 1 to 4, 6, 8-12 and 14. I submitted my oral submissions towards query-numbers (5) and (7) with repeated requests to endorse these in the Appellate...

Airports Aviation Daily Jul 07 , 2010 , p. 08 Neelam Mathews The new Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, which was dedicated on July 3, has highlighted the lack of adequate airport facilities in Mumbai. “Mumbai, India’s financial capital, needs a second airport. Its present one is saturated,” says Praful Patel, minister of civil aviation. A new Navi Mumbai airport, which was cleared for development in 2006, has not been given environmental clearance. News reports from India say local officials are meeting with environment ministry officials to speed the process. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the Indian aviation sector has the potential to absorb up to $120 billion in investments by 2020, while Patel says Delhi has now become the No. 1 airport in terms of passenger traffic and flights, overtaking Mumbai. T3, built by a public/private partnership, can handle 34 million passengers a year and opens ahead of upgrades to 35 airports planned by the Airpo...