Tag Archives: Minister of State for Civil Aviation

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has issued directions to the respective car parking licensees across all AAI controlled airports for evolving a mechanism of e-payment transactions in the form of debit/credit cards, digital wallets (PayTM, Freecharge, Mobikwik, Reliance Jio etc.). This was revealed by Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, in Lok Sabha, AAI has also keep sufficient change of currency in small denomination of Rs.10, 20, 50 & 100 to smoothen the process of parking at all airports. Besides Car Parking Licensees, AAI is evolving a mechanism so that digital payment alternatives through various modes is available at all concessions providing passenger facilitation services at airports (such as Food & Beverage Outlets, General Retails, Car Rentals, Pre-paid Taxi Services etc.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, has said that the civil aviation sector has the potential to create about 10 lakh direct jobs in the next 10 years. He further said that with a six-fold multiplier effect that jobs in this sector have, this can lead to the creation of about 60 lakh jobs – direct and indirect – in the next 10 years. As jobs in the civil aviation sector tend to be of high value, this would go a long way in improving the economic condition of a large number of young people. The Minister also said that the sector can reasonably be expected to grow at an average rate of about 10-12 per cent over the next ten years. However, to achieve this we first need to fill the gap between the demand for skilled manpower for a huge variety of trades in the sector, and the availability of the same. Stressing upon the need for world class training and skilling, he said that this can raise the employability of our people across the world. Sinha also flagged the issue of non-availability of land to build airports as another constraint for growth of the sector. The Minister was speaking at a workshop on Building Awareness on Aligning Skill Development in the Civil Aviation Sector with the National Skill Qualification Framework ( NSQF) in New Delhi. The event also saw the signing of an MoU between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship for training of people in the various trades associated with the civil aviation sector.

The Delhi International Airport Private Limited (DIAL) has included construction of a new fourth runway parallel to the existing runway in the just concluded Master Plan 2016 of IGI Airport, New Delhi with features to handle large wide body aircrafts, navigational aids and lighting to permit operation in low visibility etc. This information was given by the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha in Rajya Sabha.

As part of the major reshuffle in the Union Cabinet, Jayant Sinha has been assigned the portfolio of Minister of State for Civil Aviation. His predecessor, Dr. Mahesh Sharma, will now only hold Independent Charge as the Minister of Tourism & Culture. Sinha was the Minister of State for Finance before the reshuffle took place on July 5, 2016.

The Government of India (GoI) has granted ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of 14 Greenfield airports namely, Mopa in Goa; Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra; Shimoga, Gulbarga,Hassan and Bijapur in Karnataka; Kannur in Kerala; Pakyong in Sikkim; Datia/Gwalior (Cargo) in Madhya Pradesh; Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh; Karaikal in Puducherry; and Dholera in Gujarat. Further, the government has laid down Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country. However, it is up to the airlines to provide services to different regions depending on their commercial viability subject to compliance of RDG. This information was given by Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) launched a “Swachh Parayantan Mobile App” to flag issues related to cleanliness in and around tourist sites. To start with, 25 Adarsh Smarak Monuments protected by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have been identified for inclusion in the App. The application would be scaled up to include more monuments as the campaign expands.  Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism & Culture and Minister of State for Civil Aviation, inaugurated the App in the presence of Vinod Zutshi, Sectretary-Tourism, MOT, Sanjeev Ranjan, Additional Secretary-Tourism, MOT, Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, MOT, Dr. R K Bhatnagar, ADG, MoR, Umang Narula, CMD, ITDC, among others. Addressing on the occasion, Dr. Sharma said that since the general public and the tourists are the largest stakeholders in keeping the monuments clean, the Ministry of Tourism has decided to facilitate the general public to communicate their complaints about any unclean area/garbage piles in and around tourist destinations. Hence as a part thereof, the Ministry of Tourism is launching this Mobile App. He opined that till all stakeholders don’t contribute, such project will not succeed. This mobile App enables a citizen to take photograph of garbage at the monument and upload the same along with his/her remarks. The application then sends an SMS to the ASI Nodal Officer concerned with the monument upon receipt of which the Nodal Officer gets the garbage cleared/removed. The Nodal Officer thereafter sends confirmation about the redressal of the complaint through an SMS to the complainant.