‘My dream: to bring civil aviation from the Maharaja to the common man’

Why do you feel scared?
Not scared… I feel very disappointed. Things could have been better here than what it is now. But I must thank the Government, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister that finally we’ve decided to do up this airport… To make it the best in the world.

Is that going to happen? We have heard that many times from many ministers for many years now.
Your apprehension is correct. We’ve planned it out. It has been planned for almost the past four years. The Cabinet approved it last month and now we are in the process of deciding the bidders and in the next eight months you’ll find the work starting. And in the next three years you will find world class airports in Mumbai and Delhi…that’s going to happen. We’ll decide the joint venture that will have 26-per cent Airport Authority of India participation and 74 per cent international equity.

But in all these cases there is a lot of resistance from within the system.
That’s because things have been under government control most of the time but it’s a part of the entire process of liberalisation. And we have aimed to achieve in what we’ve achieved in roads, ports and in IT.

That’s why one is most dismayed about Civil Aviation because for four years finance ministers in their budgets have announced the upgradation of the airports.
Yes, I have admitted that. That’s past. And now the work has already started. We’ve already invited the global bid.

But why has it taken so much time to pass? It’s been four years since the government assumed power.
We have constraints of the Act that had to be passed in Parliament. It had to be recommended by the Standing Committee in Parliament which took about a year and a half and then we needed a consensus in Parliament to get this thing going. All this has taken a lot of time and yes, we are moving towards reforms. We’ve not been able to put things on a fast track. Airport is one of them which we are going to put on the fast track.

You can go to capitals around the world. Not big capitals. Go to Maldives. The Male airport is beautiful. It’s efficient. Not crowds like these.
I am not denying that. Things are wonderful elsewhere and we’re going to make a wonderful airport here in Delhi and Mumbai. Things are not as they are supposed to be. They are crowded. They are not organised. The counters are not there. The facilities are not there. X-ray machines are scattered, the systems are not there. The queues are not there, trolleys are not there. But there has to be an integrated approach. It cannot be in isolation.

What is the root of this? So much else has improved in India but why not the airports?
This is a priority economic infrastructure and it has been delayed. I would accept that.

But why?
There was a political debate which has been delayed. The roads have taken off, ports have taken off, IT has taken off, Civil Aviation has lagged behind. But now what the Prime Minister has mandated to me, we’ll achieve it.

Is there sufficient determination within the system to do it?
Yes, I can assure you in the next eight months…even in the next eight months you’ll see a substantive and a qualitative change in the existing airports because we are going to run it and improve it. And not just here, we are talking about the smaller airports in the country. Even the domestic departures… and I am going to assure the nation through you that you are going to see a distinct visible change in the next eight months.

Tell me the five most irritating things that you encounter in Indian airports when you come in as an ordinary passenger. Then I’ll tell you the five that I face.
When you have to depart, it is the X-ray process, the checking counters, the comforts of waiting in a place, the security area, the procedure for frisking. When you enter the area, it’s congested. And when you enter the airfcraft…The whole process should be open. What we are saying is, number one, we are going to have a world class airport and number two, whatever exists today, at least we’ll try make it comfortable for the passengers. The basic facilities should be there. The thought process which has not been there for the passengers… Now, at least I take the credit of talking about the passengers and going far behind the management to do that.

But every passenger pays a lot of money to use the airport. All this is a part of his ticket but if I just look around, we have all these kiosks… some says money exchange, some long distance telephone booths — most of those are empty. They don’t even have people in them.
They do not fit into the parameters of my imagination of the facilities that are there.

They are not even manned. This is the peak hour now at the IGI.
It’s just not worth it. It’s not even worth discussing. Don’t embarrass me.

I am not embarrassing you.
I am completely responsible for it but I am not totally responsible in a way because I did not start it off. Whatever it is, we will improve the existing ones.

How long have you been the civil aviation minister?
Four months now.

When you look at your ministry, you look at your priorities, how do you list that?
When I first came here I had four or five priorities. First was airport modernisation. And the reason you know. When we talk about an economic infrastructure, we talk of hubs of aviation and any international airport becomes a hub and that finally would result in creation of international financial capital. So it’s an economic activity. Then we’ve talked about increasing the fleet capacity which is very important for domestic airlines and overall, then we are talking about a Civil Aviation Policy where we are focussing on affordable aviation, accessibility and aviation for all.

But in the system, when you talk the reformist language, I won’t say resistance… but what kind of doubts do you come through?
It is there initially. I have an experience with the AAI when we talked about the privatisation and there was a lot of hue and cry. But then I talked to them and convinced them you all can change things, you all can do it, and we have posed it as a challenge to the AAI. And now, there is a change which possibly you cannot feel… but I can feel there are changes in the mindset of the people, of employees and they are accepting competition.

One of my great dreams has been some kind of inquiry that somebody might find out who built this ceiling.
I would tell you twenty such which I would like to conduct.

Even in the terms of CPWD school of architecture…
There is no such concept… even in terms of interior design, landscape architecture…

This looks like as if it will fall on your head any moment.
This is terrible. You cannot just keep on saying that they are terrible. I’ll have to do it. So I am not getting into what was wrong. I am trying to do whatever small, good things can be done and it would be done.

But what’s there in a political system whereby you can reform the highways, the financial sector, you can sell half your public sector undertakings….you can reform every area of the economy except civil aviation?
It’s happening.

But what happened in the past?
Why should I comment on the past? We are working on it and I can assure you with whatever small honesty that I can claim to have, we are going to change the face of the Civil Aviation sector and we’ll do it. That’s the mandate the PM has given.

If you just look at comforts, you could see how unscientifically things are done. This immigration card…you need the skills of a calligraphist to fill this card. Indian immigration cards have the narrowest space in the world.
Just today we had a presentation to have a world class immigration facility where passenger information and access system will be completely computerised and will be done in seconds.

Will I get a landing card which I can fill without having to pore over it?
No, you’ll have better ones. I can assure you that.

Also some real absurdities like expiry date. When you mention a passport issue date, you know there should be an expiry date.
There has to be concerted effort between the Customs, the Immigration and the Civil Aviation. In most of countries there is one authority which decides it. Here we have multiple organisations. But now, even the Customs and the Immigration are working together and I would say as part of the nodal ministry of civil aviation, I have taken up all the issues and the officers are responding. We have to build up the system so that it happens.

I would have thought that actually its the easiest area to reform because the elite use civil aviation much more, so to say, than the working classes. So at least they would do something for the annoyed faces.
It was our failure not to have done it so far. But I can assure you. I don’t have great claims to offer you. But what you feel, I still feel terrible. But it’s a challenge for me. I don’t have a tenure in perpetuity, I have a small tenure. I have to do whatever…

Before you became minister, did you ever feel strongly about the state of our airports, the state of our airlines?
As a Commerce Minister, I was travelling around the world. Much more than any other minister would have done in that tenure. And it just hurt me. But now I have an opportunity and I still have the constraint of time. But I can assure you one thing I’ll decide things, I’ll leave a footprint and it will happen on its own.

Let’s talk to a frequent traveller. I can see a frequent traveller — Tiger Pataudi. Tiger, what do you think about the state of our airports compared to what you see overseas.
Pataudi: I think it’s improving very fast. It used to be chaotic two years ago.

But what if you were not a VIP? What will happen?
Pataudi:No, I don’t think so. I am lucky to be recognised.

Rudy: But there’s still much to be done.

Pataudi: Well, it should always improve.

So, in the system, when you now speak to your Cabinet colleagues and say, look I have limited time — this thing should have happened long time back and it hasn’t happened yet — do you get the right kind of answers.
Yes, it’s a phenomenal support. Even in the Cabinet meeting… I have fixed targets — the airports, the fee deposition, the accessibility and affordability, the Civil Aviation Policy and we want to bring civil aviation from the Maharaja symbol to a common man’s mood, That is my dream and that is the dream of the Prime Minister. He said let’s do it.

How do you do it? Well, actually Air India has become the flag carrier of the government of India…
I can tell you more.

Tell me some more.
When we talk about the bilaterals… Air India makes most of the profits, almost Rs 300 crore in the bilaterals rather than flying it on. Because we have a system that tends to protect our public sectors.

Explain this bilateral issue…
When you don’t have the aircraft and you want to use the economic rights for that particular bilateral agreement…

…Another airline flies and pays you a tribute.
Yes, but then, when you talk about it, it may not be so harsh everywhere but every country tries to protect its own economic interests. But there’s a clause, they have their own aircraft to do it. Here we do not have aircraft to do it and we have a constraint of allowing others to enter. So this is a major challenge for international aviation and for growth of tourism.

If you would’ve allowed the growth of private airlines, they would have had these aircraft.
It’s a very valid demand. It’s a demand that’s coming up. Instead of allowing foreign airlines to come and take away a part of our bilaterals…

There is a thought process. We must take this proposal for the consideration of the Government to say that if our carriers can do it and our own carriers which are private and are a part of the Indian system, can go international and they can give competition and quality. And I think there is a wide degree of consensus also. The only threat that emerges there is the airlines — the Indian Airlines and Air India. But I also have a responsibility towards them… I am also trying to tell them to gear up to beat competition.

One more important part of airport infrastructure where people can shop and pass their time at airports — these duty free shops. We might check out one as well.
This duty free shop is run by ITDC and the most interesting part of this is their monopoly. We have tried to end their monopoly.

It’s midnight and the peak rush hour… In which other country at a major airport would you find a duty free shop empty at this hour? It’s a shame.
Fortunately or unfortunately it’s a major business for ITDC and if they have not planned it out, we would’ve made it much more comfortable.

But what then happens is: you’ve a public sector island and other public sector islands feed off it…
Yes… ‘You scratch my back, I scratch your back….’ It’s a system that has been perpetuated. But we need to see that we get competitive and this debate is emerging that let’s compete.

What changes are you planning in the security set up?
You have to come back in a month to see the smaller changes. It should be a free-flow system but this is not enough.

Are you going to get immigration and security officers who talk gentle to the passengers?
I can tell you the CISF have been doing a much better job than what could have been expected. I have tried motivation exercises in the ministry itself. It cannot be an isolated effort. The feel good factor that we are the best, will be the top-most, will take time and it will be too much to expect from me. But I’ll try.

There are so many things that are so attitudinal. For example, immigration officials look at your passport and say why do you travel overseas so often? Or when you arrive with two bottles of wine in it. Somebody puts a white chalk mark on it…
They must be dividing the whole systems of check so I won’t comment on that. As long as do their job properly…

But are you trying to educate them?
You see, the whole environment has to change. … It cannot be a single agency, there has to be ‘n’ numbers of them…they all should work in a collective manner.

But shouldn’t they conform to certain basic norms?
They should improve, but these are all very subjective matters.

How long do we have to wait to see to improvement?
Well, may be in six months we’ll be able to get back on our feet.

Those might be just cosmetic changes. But these airports have basic problems.
We are talking of new mega projects in Mumbai and Delhi… something like Heathrow and Frankfurt. This cannot be a piecemeal effort. We’re going to have entertainment centres. We’ll have modern cafetrias like McDonalds and Baristas.

I hope an Internet cafe as well.
All that is part of the mega project that we are talking about. Meanwhile, we will have to improve on the basic aesthetics. And thereafter, when we are talking about Rs 3000 crore on each airport…Rs 5,000 crore on two airports, they will be nothing short of the best.