Govt to appoint aviation regulator by Oct

The government is planning to appoint an independent regulator for the aviation sector by October.

K N Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Civil Aviation, said: "The regulator would be in place by October this year. The matter is already before Parliament."

After clearance from Parliament, it would take about three months to set up the regulator. The regulator would look into aspects like aeronautical charges, user development fee, passenger fee and others, he added.

A greenfield airport policy would be announced shortly that would seek to minimise the delay faced by developers of new airports in getting approvals. The policy is being considered by the Cabinet and is expected to be announced this month.

The government will also soon come out with a Vision Document-2020 for the aviation sector. At present, a Group of Ministers (GoM) is looking into it. The document will contain plans for airport infrastructure, connectivity, security and other related issues.