Civil Aviation Minister Naidu moves Bill in Rajya Sabha to replace 90-yr old Aircraft Act

New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday took up a Bill which seeks to remove redundancies and replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act to boost ease of doing business to attract investments in the aviation sector.

The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024, was passed in the Lok Sabha in the last session of Parliament in August this year.

Moving the Bill for consideration and passage, Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said that the Bill was taken up after a suggestion by The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to amend the principal act. He mentioned that the aviation sector has the potential to drive the economy and should be expanded.

He informed the House that the number of airports has increased from 74 in 2014 to 157 in the country and the fleet size has also doubled from 400 (aircraft) in 2014 to 813.

“In the earlier Act, only the world maintenance was mentioned. There was no definition. Now we adding design and manufacturing also. We are also defining all these three terms (in the new law). We have brought the appeal system,” he stated.

The minister explained that most of the times, we amend rules of the Act with backing of the principal act and that is why we are amending the principal act. “We are giving strong legal backing to the rules under the Act,” he stressed. He also stated that today everybody wants to have an airport in their district.

“We want to cater to those dreams. We want to build those airports. We feel that if we cannot do it today, it will be a challenge tomorrow. The land is going to be scarce,” he added.

“We have organised everything in the Bill which provides different section for powers of bodies like DGCA. So there is clear demarcation and indication on which each body has to do as recommended by ICAO,” he stated.