India is preparing to replace the outdated 90-year-old ‘Aircraft Act of 1934’ with ‘Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024’ to establish more efficient regulations to protect passenger rights, as well as to ease the policy environment to promote investment in the sector.
The bill will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha for consideration on Monday by Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu. It was passed by the Lok Sabha during the last session of Parliament.
Notably, the bill aims to create more efficient and safe air operations while also providing a better consumer protection environment by ensuring higher service quality.
It aspires to create an “efficient online mechanism” to address passenger grievances, ensuring a time-bound response period.
Once it becomes an act of parliament, the bill will remove redundancies and provide effective regulatory powers to control areas such as air traffic management and the drone segment.
It will provide a regulatory framework to match India’s legislation with global standards, particularly in aircraft leasing, by easing regulations and establishing a welcoming environment for investment.
Besides, the bill seeks to promote aircraft manufacturing in the country by regulating the design, assembly, technology and other related aspects.
In the last session of Parliament, Minister Naidu, while introducing the bill, said that it aims to regulate and control the design, manufacture, maintenance, possession, use, operation, sale, export, and import of aircraft, alongside other matters.
The incumbent -- Indian Aircraft Act -- brought in 1934, has gone through several changes over the years. It has been amended 21 times.