Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain today said India was willing to resume operations to Kabul whenever Pakistan opened its airspace. The minister also waived certain expenses to assist Afghanistan in building its aviation infrastructure.
This was decided at a meeting between Hussain and his Afghan counterpart, Mirwaiz Sadiq. The two were accompanied by top officials of the external affairs and the civil aviation ministries, besides those from Air-India, Indian Airlines and the Airports Authority of India.
As part of the measures, the government will extend the waiver of around $797,000 towards maintenance and crew support by Air-India beyond the agreed date of December 15. Air India will also undertake repairs of two Ariana Airways aircraft at a cost of $113,000.
Afghan mechanical engineers, student pilots, cabin crew, flight despatchers, instructor pilots and instructor flight engineers will be trained by Air-India, Indian Airlines and the Airports Authority of India, who will also provide training to the Ariana staff in accounts, finance and computers.
The Airports Authority of India, which will provide consultancy services for reconstruction of the Herat airport, has also agreed to waive over Rs 15 lakh worth of outstanding amount towards Ariana's cargo handling.
The government will also take up the issue of exemption of old dues of over Rs 1 crore on account of excise duty on aviation turbine fuel lifted by Ariana during its earlier operations to Amritsar. The government had earlier gifted three Airbus aircraft to Ariana.
