Aug. 29--NEW DELHI -- The UN aviation watchdog, which had ranked India among 13 nations with the worst record of air safety oversight, has agreed to remove the country from its blacklist after a week-long compliance audit of the Indian aviation regulator this week.
"They have issued an order which we have just received that they have found India compliant and will remove us from significant safety concerns list," director general of civil aviation Arun Mishra said in an interview.
This clearance will allow India's major airlines, including Air India Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd, to expand overseas.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, of which India is a member, completed an audit of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in December and found it lacking in its ability to oversee safety issues.
ICAO had identified a "significant safety concern with respect to the ability of this state (India) to properly oversee areas" under airworthiness and operations, in its report.
The organization clubbed India with 12 other nations, including Angola, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kazakhstan and Lebanon, on air safety oversight.
DGCA had subsequently given Icao a corrective action plan that it intended to implement by June. The ICAO team was in India last week to check on the implementation of this corrective plan. On Friday, DGCA was briefed by the visiting ICAO team.
DGCA has been working on these concerns raised by ICAO since January.
The ICAO findings had led to Japan stalling Air India's plan to start flights to Osaka and also prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to seek an audit next month, Mint reported on 21 August. A downgrade in an FAA audit could have potentially barred any new flights to the US by Indian carriers.
Copyright 2013 - Mint, New Delhi
