FAA Officials Cite Growth Of Aviation in India For Agreement

Indian air traffic controllers will train with fellow US ATC workers due to a new initiative to accelerate civil aviation ties between the two countries. The training will be conducted under the India-US Aviation Steering Committee whose first meeting was held in the capital city of New Delhi on Friday October 26, according to the Hindustan Times.

A cooperative program called Cooperation Programme (ACP) in India will be overseen by a US-India Joint Aviation Steering Committee. The FAA has permanent representation with 15 countries worldwide including India.

"The training is the first project of the ACP. It will begin in January and run through 2008, focusing on air traffic operations at the two busiest Indian airports of Delhi and Mumbai," James Filippatos of the FAA, told reporters on Friday.

"The project will be completed in four phases, permitting Indian and American air traffic control officials to work together," added Filippatos, who is the FAA assistant administrator for international aviation.

"We see an opportunity to enhance our partnership with India because of the growth that is (occurring) here," said Filippatos of the two initiatives, which grew out of a suggestion made by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel at the first US-India Aviation Summit here in April.

The ACP is a public-private partnership between the US Trade and Development Agency, the FAA, US aviation companies and the Indian government.

"The Aviation Cooperation Program provides a forum for communication between the government of India and US public and private sector companies in India and works directly with the Indian government to support India's civil aviation sector modernization priorities," a US embassy release said. The steering committee will oversee the work of various working groups that will focus initially on air traffic control, flight standards, airports, airworthiness and environmental issues, Filippatos said.

Each working group will be co-chaired by a senior executive from the FAA and the Indian civil aviation ministry "and will develop and implement a work plan and report its progress regularly to the steering committee", the official added.

The steering committee will meet every six months "to prioritize and give directions to the working groups," Filippatos said.

FMI: www.faa.gov, http://civilaviation.nic.in/