India, US to soon sign Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement

8th Feb 2011

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According to a PIB release, Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi yesterday met Gary Locke, Commerce Secretary, United States and both sides acknowledged the cooperation through the Memorandum of Agreement and India-US Aviation Cooperation Programme (ACP). 

The ACP bilateral partnership which was launched in 2007, targets mutual interests in supporting modernisation requirements of India’s rapidly growing aviation sector. The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is the lead sponsor of the ACP and funds technical assistance programmes for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI). The Minister thanked Gary Locke for the projects already underway which have helped the Indian Civil Aviation Sector as a whole. Both sides exchanged views on how to further this cooperation. 

Ravi also informed that the Executive Agreement for Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement between the two sides may be signed soon once it receives the internal approvals in India.

The two sides discussed benefits of the ACP partnership in being able to identify and executive priority technical collaboration projects. The Indian side expressed that projects in the pipeline such as the grant agreement for the Inspector training programme or TMODT for the DGCA may be given priority. 

Ravi also thanked Gary Locke for committing to fund a technical assistance programme for AAI for installation and operational certification of a pilot Ground Based Augmentation System at Chennai International Airport which will help to improve the safety and efficiency of India’s air traffic management systems. 

The two sides agreed to hold the 3rd India-US Aviation Summit this year. They also presided over a business delegation in which business heads of various companies participated.