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Journalism of Courage
New Delhi, Mar 4: The centre today said there were some teething problems’ in the commissioning of the new radar system provided by US company Raytheon.
However, trained technical personnel of Raytheon, under the warranty system for equipment, would attend to any malfunction which is noticed, Civil Aviation Minister Ananth kumar told Lok Sabha in a written reply.
“There were some teething problems inherent in the commissioning of a new project and these have been taken care of,” he added. Aircraft: Government is considering an Indian Airlines proposal for purchase of six ATR-42 aircraft, being offered jointly by French company ATR and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), he said, adding the average price per aircraft was Rs 62.53 crores.
The routes for operation of these 50-seater planes will be decided at the time of their induction depending upon their need and viability, he added.
In reply to another question, he said there was no proposal to introduce flights by 800-seater aircraft. Private airlines, Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines, have sought permission for importing five 64-seater ATR-72-500 planes and ten 68-seater ATP aircraft respectively. Kumar said the proposals were being considered by the government, he added.
Fares: Air India’s proposal for a five per cent hike in international fares was being considered by the government, Kumar said.
To a question on fare war between airlines, he said airlines have jointly agreed on a programme to improve yields on Gulf routes by reducing incentives among other things.
Loss-making sectors: Indian airlines has reduced its loss-making sectors from 120 in 1996-97 to 76 in 1997-98, the Minister said, adding that air India reduced the number of such sectors from 15 to 12 during the same period.
In reply to another question, Kumar said the total number of flights cancelled between last July and mid-February this year by Indian airlines was 1404 and by Air India was 79. While IA estimated a loss of about Rs 209 crores, the loss for AI was about Rs 2.3 crores.
Modernisation: Airports Authority of India (AAI) has drawn up plans for expansion, modification and upgradation of facilities at various across the country to meet the needs of air traffic growth by 2000, Kumar said.
The amount of investment proposed for these years were Rs 70.87 crores (1999-2000), Rs 765.49 crores (2000-2001) and Rs 961.75 crores (2001-2002), he said, adding that priority had been given to construction of new terminal buildings at major airports and modification of existing terminals.
