All new national highways to have helipads: Aviation Minister Scindia
Helipads on the national highways will help in immediate evacuations during emergencies, Jyotiraditya Scindia noted during the Civil Aviation Ministers' Conference in Delhi.
The government is looking at having helipads along new highways as that will help in immediate evacuations during emergencies.
The ministries of civil aviation and road transport have discussed the proposal, according to Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
To enhance connectivity, especially in remote and hilly areas, the civil aviation ministry has been pushing for increasing the use of helicopters.
"All the new highways should have helipads along them so that infrastructure is in place," Scindia said.
Helipads on the national highways will help in immediate evacuations during emergencies, he noted.
Both Scindia and the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen (Retd) VK Singh pitched for having helipads in every district.
They were speaking at the Civil Aviation Ministers' Conference in the national capital.
The government has also decided to incubate a Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) pilot called 'Project Sanjeevani' by deploying a helicopter in the next few weeks to provide emergency medical services at AIIMS Rishikesh.
The helicopter will be based at the hospital at 20 minute notice and will have a service cover to an area of 150 km radius.
Currently, there are around 80 dedicated helicopter corridors.
Centre eyeing state highways with high traffic for lane expansion, toll collection: Gadkari
The Centre is also mulling a scheme under which it will take over state highways having high-traffic density for expansion, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday.
Gadkari, who handles the road transport and highways portfolio, said a state highway will be expanded into a four or six lane road by the Centre and toll will be collected for 25 years before handing the asset back to the state.
"…we will take that highway from the state government (and) will collect the toll," Gadkari said, speaking at a convention organised by the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) here.
The minister, who has built a reputation for constructing mega road projects across the country, exuded confidence that the money invested for a particular highway's expansion into a 4-6 lane carriageway can be recovered in 12-13 years itself.
He, however, did not offer any elaboration on the evinced plan like if the Centre is in talks with any states or the overall outlay under this or if such an activity will be undertaken by partnering with a private entity.
Scindia urges 8 states to reduce VAT on ATF
Earlier on Tuesday, Scindia urged eight states, including West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab to reduce VAT on Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) for facilitating air connectivity to Tier-II, Tier-III cities.
Scindia also promised to increase aeroplane connectivity in these eight states if they reduce VAT on ATF.
"I urge you (eight states) politely to reduce VAT on ATF. I promise you to increase the aeroplane connectivity in your states," Scindia said while speaking at the concluding session of a two-day conference of Ministers of Civil Aviation of all states and Union Territories here in the national capital.
The minister said there were 12 states who had far-sighted views on this issue and they had lowered VAT on ATF many many months ago.
"Therefore they had increased travel to their states because aeroplanes will go where raw materials are cheap. And ATF constitutes between 45-50 per cent of the total cost of the airline sector."
"The ATF of these 12 states was 1-4 per cent, and the ATF of 26 states was 20-30 per cent. In the last one-and-a-half year, the graph of the ATF has increased from Rs 53,000 per km to Rs 1.40 lakh per km. In the last few months, there is a reduction in ATF of almost 20 per cent but the most cost-affecting part of the airline sector is still ATF," Scindia said.
He also mentioned how civil aviation has beeen mostly affected sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Considering multiple problems being faced by passengers across the world due to late running of planes, long queues on airports and issues of missing baggage, Scindia said "I am happy that India cooperating seamlessly".
"Pre-Covid, India's record was nearly 4 lakh passengers per day. We broke that record two times-- in April this year and another a few days ago. We have achieved a new record this time between 4.07 lakh to 4.1 lakh travellers per day," Scindia said while speaking at the concluding event of a two-day conference of Ministers of Civil Aviation of all states and Union Territories.
"It is a new record that India has set during the post-Covid scenario," he added.
(With inputs from ANI)