With the government planning to have a firm aviation policy next year, the civil aviation minister indicated that the concept is to try and make Indian skies more vibrant and get maximum number of people to fly. Besides this, he also stressed that the aviation industry will also cater to cargo and other activities that would generate employment within the country.
Below is the verbatim transcript of Ashok Gajapathi Raju's interview with Sindhu Bhattacharya on CNBC-TV18.
Q: I must say that the policy has been very long in the making, the draft is finally out. How long did it take for this policy to come to the form that it has come out in the public domain and how long will it take from here for the draft to become a policy?
A: The draft to some extent or rather to a large extent reflects the government's thinking otherwise it cannot be a draft policy. So governmental thinking to some extent has got reflected there and their stakeholders and everyone who has not already commented -- for those who have already commented also can comment again and we will take this to its logical end. I think we will start the New Year with a firm aviation policy but policies by nature there will be a three-five years' time-limit on it. Then the government of that day will have to decide how to take it forward. The concept is to try and make Indian skies vibrant, get people to fly and aviation should not only cater to passengers, it should cater to cargo also and other activities that generate employment around should be generating employment within the country. So we are trying all those things and I think that the direction is good. As it is we have had quite a bit of discussion, we have interacted with the state governments, we have interacted with all the airlines. We have interacted with everybody who we could think need to be interacted with.
03/11/15 First Post
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Below is the verbatim transcript of Ashok Gajapathi Raju's interview with Sindhu Bhattacharya on CNBC-TV18.
Q: I must say that the policy has been very long in the making, the draft is finally out. How long did it take for this policy to come to the form that it has come out in the public domain and how long will it take from here for the draft to become a policy?
A: The draft to some extent or rather to a large extent reflects the government's thinking otherwise it cannot be a draft policy. So governmental thinking to some extent has got reflected there and their stakeholders and everyone who has not already commented -- for those who have already commented also can comment again and we will take this to its logical end. I think we will start the New Year with a firm aviation policy but policies by nature there will be a three-five years' time-limit on it. Then the government of that day will have to decide how to take it forward. The concept is to try and make Indian skies vibrant, get people to fly and aviation should not only cater to passengers, it should cater to cargo also and other activities that generate employment around should be generating employment within the country. So we are trying all those things and I think that the direction is good. As it is we have had quite a bit of discussion, we have interacted with the state governments, we have interacted with all the airlines. We have interacted with everybody who we could think need to be interacted with.
03/11/15 First Post
