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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  We will push for a second Delhi airport at the right time: Mahesh Sharma
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We will push for a second Delhi airport at the right time: Mahesh Sharma

Sharma, minister of state for civil aviation, says visas on arrival for more nations and cutting airlines’ delays are also at the top of his agenda

Sharma says with the population of the national capital region at 50-60 million, there should be an airport in the region. Photo: Hindustan Times (Hindustan Times)Premium
Sharma says with the population of the national capital region at 50-60 million, there should be an airport in the region. Photo: Hindustan Times
(Hindustan Times)

New Delhi: As tourism and culture minister and minister of state for civil aviation, Mahesh Sharma, 56, has his hands full. Only a few months into the job, he has a blueprint of what he wants to achieve in aviation. Topping his agenda is a push for a second airport for Delhi, granting visa on arrival to more countries and cutting delays by Air India Ltd as well as private airlines. Edited excerpts from an interview:

You have got the visa on arrival facility up and running. What more is being done on that front?

At present we have MoUs (memorandums of understanding) with 43 counties with which we started visa on arrival since 29 November. Since then, there has been a growth of 1,200%—68,000 people took visas. And if we add only six more countries to this list of 43— such as China, France, UK, Italy, Spain—we...(will cover) 62% of the tourist market of the world. Till now, we are covering 42% of the international tourist market. Now with the Prime Minister’s and finance minister’s vision of making it to 150 countries, you can very well imagine what will be the impact. Of these 68,000 visas, 32% was from the US alone.

There is a lot of concern that Indians don’t get visa on arrival when they go to foreign countries. Are you pushing for that?

My country’s policy I can define. I cannot force anybody else to define their policy. Definitely when we talk, we talk about bilaterals, that whenever we extend visa on arrival, we expect reciprocation from their side, but the choice is theirs.

You have three portfolios. How is it like managing all three?

Earlier, it used to be that aviation is only for higher class of people. Now it’s not so; even the middle class or the lower middle class people are using air travel as one of the fastest mode of connectivity.

And if you talk of the other two ministries—civil aviation, and tourism and culture—there is a good synergy between them. The slogan we gave for these three ministries is that the maximum strength of this country has been its rich culture and heritage.

We don’t talk about trillion or billion dollar reserves; we say we want to take the rich heritage and culture of our great country, via the mode of tourism giving wings of aviation, to every corner of the world.

What do you plan to achieve in the aviation ministry in three-five years?

We have put our guidelines and dates as a document—like what we propose to do by 31 March...that’s what, as a document, is coming as a civil aviation policy. But, as a minister, I have got certain guidelines. I have shared my views with the senior minister and the officers that we should do this...in a timely manner and with a devoted and dedicated person responsible to execute that.

Can you identify three such things?

The first thing will be the on-time performance not just for Air India, but for all. Because we are not here for Air India (alone)—we are a civil aviation ministry and we are here for the civil aviation industry as a whole. Second part will be hospitality cleanliness because that will directly or indirectly improve our tourism. It will add to our employment. Wherever in the Himalayan states or the northeastern states connectivity-wise fixed wing (aircraft service) is not possible, we propose to connect it with helicopter services.

You mentioned 31 March as a deadline.

We have defined smart goals, smart and manageable goals. We don’t say that we will reduce Air India’s losses by hundreds of crores instantly, not like that. The first step will be on-time performance; and when we say that our revenues will be up, our balance sheet is bound to be better than earlier.

So we have not laid a plan that in five years we will do this; we have said (set deadlines for) every two weeks, every quarter in a year. So we propose our vision and targets to be small targets. We are in the process of setting up an advisory group on aviation (with) experts from the domestic or international sphere.

Do you plan to reduce any VIP privileges?

In this democratic country, certain security risks we have to take care of, but in principle, we want to dilute the VIP culture. Someone will not get a car passage to our airport just because he is a VIP. If there is a security problem or medical problem, then definitely we would like to consider it. But certainly for egos we will not like to make this service available.

There has been growing support for a second airport in Delhi given the congested situation at Mumbai. Do you think the Greater Noida airport at Jewar should come up?

With the population of NCR (National Capital Region) at 5-6 crore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad portion of western Uttar Pradesh —even up to Meerut—they will use this airport. There should be an airport in NCR. I don’t say it should be in Jewar. Let it be anywhere. Now the question is, where? We need about 1,200 acres of land. Do we have that? With new laws, it is not easy to acquire this land. So we have some land lying over there (in Jewar). We can think of it.

So you are open to a second airport anywhere else in NCR?

I don’t mind. I am not saying my focus is Jewar, but out of the 10 choices, five choices, whichever is the best, let it go there.

Have you spoken to the Uttar Pradesh government as they were not keen on pursuing this airport?

Yes. They are also working on it. Any airport will take three years to build, but for that we will have to start planning today. Nearly 27,000 passengers of Air India alone come in and out of the Delhi airport everyday.

Have you spoken to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav?

There are political issues. But we have to talk. Everyone will have to revisit his stand. We have to plan 20 years ahead. My big question is, New York and Washington with a population of 72 lakh have three to six airports. Can Delhi afford to have one airport?

But GMR Infrastructure, which runs the Delhi airport, will oppose competition.

We have our clause, clause 8.2 of the contract (between GMR and the government) for creating a greenfield airport. It’s not that we have a contract with GMR and we cannot have anything else. At the right time we will raise it, push it.

From replies in Parliament, it seems there is no move or thinking on Air India’s privatization?

Privatization is not the solution. It means running from your responsibility. But at the right time we will take a decision in the wider interest of the aviation industry. In principle, I believe that Air India should improve its working and become self-dependant financially also.

But in case we fail to for any reason, then we will take a decision in consonance with cabinet and government of India.

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Published: 10 Mar 2015, 12:12 AM IST
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