Addressing the fourth International Civil Aviation Negotiations Conference here, the minister said the concept note for national aviation university has already been prepared.
“The university will have all the faculties required in the civil aviation sector. The university will deal with courses from ticketing to pilot training to aeronautical engineering to air traffic control training to security measures to imparting of know-how on running aviation businesses. The venue of the varsity is yet to be decided.”
Though the idea of a full-fledged aviation university was floating in the circles for quite some time, the recent scandal of half-baked pilots being churned out by “fly-by-night flying institutes,” expedited the processing of concept note.
Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi said the present Directorate General of Civil Aviation will soon be bifurcated into two separate bodies—one dealing with civil aviation and the other dealing with investigations into accidents and other aviation-related issues.
The two departments will be given autonomy and more powers. A restructuring of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security is also on the cards.
“With the increase in terrorist activities and terror-threat perception, we felt that civil aviation security is in urgent need of a restructuring,” he said.
Apart from the restructuring of civil aviation security, the ministry is also toying with the idea of setting up an independent and exclusive civil aviation police force and a national aviation academy dealing specialising in security.
The national aviation academy, recently approved by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), will also set up security training centres in other countries. On the issue of the aviation varsity, Zaidi said the country was witnessing an increase in air traffic and by 2020, at least 30 crore passengers will fly in and out of India.
“Thus it is very necessary that we have our university and a committee set up for this will soon decide the modalities and the venue of the varsity,” he said.
Earlier, the conference being attended by over 350 was inaugurated by President Pratibha Patil. She released specially minted coins commemorating a century of civil aviation in India in the presence of Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan and Ravi.
The eve of five-day conference saw attendance of Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel and ICAO president Roberto Kobe Gonzales with panelists from 65 countries participating in discussions.