How red tape killed this pilot's 'Make in India' dream
Amol Yadav, a Mumbai-based pilot, built a six-seater aircraft on the terrace of his home. The Maharashtra government offered him land and funds to manufacture 19-seater planes after being impressed with his effort. Yadav is on the verge of completing his 19-seater plane's prototype. However, six-years of frustrating bureaucratic hurdles have prevented his plane from taking-off. The 19-seater seems like a distant dream.
An indigenous 19-seater plane like the one built by Yadav would help create jobs in India's aviation industry. It would help boost regional connectivity, especially among smaller airports where 40- or 70-seater planes are not viable due to low passenger traffic on such routes. Connecting these smaller cities would help promote tourism there. So far, no Indian company has managed to build such aircraft.
The Economic Times has reported that the Yadav's six-seater plane had been featured in the 'Make in India' conference. The CM Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government plans to allot him land to manufacture his 19-seater aircraft, but only after receiving a demonstration of the six-seater plane. To fly the plane, Yadav must first register the plane with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Yadav first registered the six-seater plane with the DGCA in 2011 under the experimental aircraft category, which allows amateurs to build planes. The DGCA kept dilly-dallying until it scrapped the category altogether in 2014. It set new rules which only allowed planes manufactured by companies to fly. In August 2017, the regulator drafted new rules, which ensure no experimental aircraft can ever be built.
The Economic Times reported that in April 2017, CM Fadnavis took up the issue about Yadav's application to the DGCA for his aircraft's registration to PM Narendra Modi. Modi later tasked his private secretary Sanjeev Kumar Singla to get involved and clear out the issue with the DGCA. However, the DGCA has refused to relent.
"I wanted my aircraft to have an India registration, but in our country innovation is considered to be a crime," a frustrated Yadav said. "So I am arranging for funds to take my aircraft to the US to get registered there. The whole process takes less than a month, compared to the six years that I have wasted here," he added.
Yadav said he'll give it a month to get the required funds. If that doesn't happen, he said he'll invite Mumbaikars to the Bandra-Kurla Complex, where his plane was first showcased in the 'Make in India' week and give it a "unique funeral." He said he would beak his plane with a hammer because India's doesn't "encourage enterprise by the common man."
