‘Aim is to make civil aviation more people-centric’

New Delhi: Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, 36, is one of the youngest ministers in the current government, managing the high-profile civil aviation ministry. He is a three-time MP. There have been numerous developments in the sector, including a bill introduced on August 9 that seeks to repeal the Indian Aircraft Act, which has been amended 21 times. Excerpts:

Naidu: The bill, Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024, was my first after becoming a minister during the first Budget session. We introduced it, passed it in the Lok Sabha. It was already approved by the cabinet before I took charge of the ministry.

One of the key reasons for introducing a new version of the bill — I’ll call it a new version because we’re repealing the old one and reorganising its sections — is that after amending the old bill 21 times, its structure became fragmented and unclear. We often didn’t know how many sections there were or why they were included.

Aviation, from a global perspective, requires adherence to certain international standards. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency, has often advised us to re-examine our existing Act, make it more organised, and integrate rules and regulations into the principal Act to strengthen our civil aviation framework.