• The conference organised to boost the development in the sector by promoting collaboration between the centre and states

Ministry of Civil Aviation has organised the Conference of the Secretaries of Civil Aviation of all the states and union territories. The inaugural session was chaired by Shri Rajiv Bansal, secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt of India, today in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

The objective of the conference is to promote greater collaboration and synergy between state civil aviation departments and the Ministry of Civil aviation to augment the development of the civil aviation sector.

The conference began with the opening remarks of the Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation and was followed by Presentations on Various Initiatives & Programs of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (By Senior Officials of the Ministry), a Presentation by DGCA, a Presentation by BCAS, Interaction with States / UTs on UDAN, Krishi Udan, Aviation Security, Developments of Airports, Greenfield Airports, Heliports, Heli Sewa, Water Aerodromes, etc., Interaction on Convergence aspects with Ministry of DoNER, Presentation on FTO / IGRUA / RGNAU, Presentation on Helicopters/HEMS, Presentations on MRO / Air Cargo and Drones.

In his opening remarks, Shri Rajiv Bansal said there has been a lot of progress in the last year. Domestic air traffic is almost near to the pre-Covid level, multiple new airports have been inaugurated, and new routes have been launched, policy steps to promote drone, Helicopter Medical Emergency Services and Fractional Ownership have been initiated. The Secretary requested states to reduce VAT on ATF and appreciated those states who have already done it.

Subjects of Infrastructure support such as the extent of land requirement for different types of airports, pending cases of handing over of land, Taxation related issues such as VAT, tax incentives for promoting FTO, MRO, etc., Civil Aviation Policies of States / UTs such as articulating the States / UTs Civil Aviation Policies and its components, Sharing the best practices of States like UP, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, NER, etc., and promotion of last mile connectivity were discussed during the conference.

Smt. Usha Padhee, Additional Secretary, MoCA, Smt. Rubina Ali, Joint Secretary MoCA, Shri Arun Kumar, Director General, DGCA, Shri Zulfikar Hasan, DG, BCAS, Secretaries/ Officer in charge civil aviation of the states and union territory and other stakeholders MoCA and states were present in the event.