India will receive technical assistance in areas ranging from airspace design to satellite navigation and aircraft certification to cope with its rapid civil aviation growth under an agreement with the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Support for certification of India's GAGAN space-based GPS augmentation system could be the first step under the new agreement, says the FAA. India has invested $100 million in GAGAN, which is similar to the US wide-area augmentation system (WAAS). Raytheon, prime contractor for WAAS, is also leading development of GAGAN.
"India is committed to building a GPS-based satellite navigation system similar to WAAS, and moving rapidly to deploying the system. We will work with them on certification and operational deployment," says FAA administrator Marion Blakey.
The FAA will provide assistance in developing area-navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP) procedures to increase the capacity and flexibility of India's airports and airspace, says Blakey. It will also help the Indian authorities tackle the complexity of its airspace, she says, particularly concentrating on the restrictions in the busy corridor between New Delhi and Mumbai.
Other areas of potential assistance include traffic flow management setting up an aviation institute to provide courses ranging from flight dispatching to airline management and helicopter safety. Outside of the framework agreement, Blakey says, the FAA is also working on a bilateral safety agreement with India to allow full reciprocity in aircraft certification.
Blakey says India has adopted most of the USA's aviation regulations and "a lot of standards are very parallel". As the USA moves towards national deployment of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) as a foundation for its next-generation air traffic system, India has an ADS-B pilot programme under way in the Bay of Bengal.
The FAA is opening an office in India, and a US-Indian aviation summit is planned for late April in New Delhi that will involve government officials and business interests, Blakey says.
Source: Flight International
