The civil aviation ministry has started making amendments to the Cabinet note on the bilateral air services agreement with the United Arab Emirates, as suggested by the Prime Minister’s Office, to clear the air over enhanced entitlements made to Abu Dhabi.
The first tranche of increased weekly traffic rights is expected to be allotted as scheduled before the start of the winter schedule, 2013.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told Business Standard, “The note is being re-drafted to include the observations suggested by the PMO. It will soon be sent to the Cabinet for approval.”
Senior ministry officials, however, said the references to the commitment made by the UAE to invest $50 billion in the Indian infrastructural sectors in lieu of increased traffic rights would not find mention in the amended note.
A controversy had erupted over the decision of the Indian government to increase bilateral air traffic rights to UAE nearly four-fold to 50,000 seats a week, over-riding the recommendations of inter ministerial group to enhance weekly entitlements by 26,000 seats.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has put the matter in abeyance, directing it be brought to the Cabinet for a decision 'in the interest of wider consultations and greater transparency'.
Defending the decision on the allotment of increased bilateral rights to Abu Dhabi, Ajit Singh said: “In three years starting 2007, as many as 35,800