Govt mulls pvt investment in cargo, aviation

Maintaining that the air cargo and some other areas in the Indian aviation sector were very weak, the government on Thursday said it was mulling the opening of these areas to private and foreign investment.

"There is a need to open up areas like the non-scheduled operation, cargo, helicopters and seaplanes operations in the country. No formal decision has been taken as yet but government will be looking into it", Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said after pointing out that there were only about half a dozen cargo aircraft in India at present.

He said there was a need to "meaningfully review" these areas of operations as more importance has so far been given to scheduled operations run by the regular airlines.

"We are examining various options in these areas as the issues concerned cannot be addressed by the prevailing policies", Patel said in reply to questions, adding that the issue of private and foreign participation was being considered.
Earlier addressing the first ever EU-India Aviation Summit alongside European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot, he said the long-term plan of this government was to create an "aviation grid" across the country by developing 400 airports and airstrips so as to ensure that a person was located within a 50 km-range from any airport.