Nearly half of sanctioned posts vacant at aviation safety regulator DGCA: Parliament informed

There are 787 vacant posts in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of the total 1,630 sanctioned posts in the aviation safety body, the government informed Parliament on Thursday. As many as 230 posts, of the total 598 sanctioned posts, in the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security are vacant. Out of 1630 posts, 441 posts – 426 technical and 15 non-technical posts – have been created during the period 2022 to 2024, keeping in view the future expansion of civil aviation as part of the restructuring of DGCA, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Murlidhar Mohol, said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. In the last four months, the minister said 15 officers/officials and nine Flight Operations Inspectors (FoIs) have joined while DPC for 31 officers has been completed among the measures to strengthen manpower at the DGCA. Also, 164 technical officers, one Flight Operations Inspector and three stenographers have been selected to join and DR proposal for 94 posts of different cadres is at various stages, Mohol said. He also said that keeping in view of effective supervision, an additional 84 posts have been created in BCAS in 2024. The shortfall has not impacted the functioning of these organisations. Further, all methods. Further, all methods of recruitment are pursued vigorously in order to ensure timely and continuous availability of requisite manpower, he stated. The minister also informed the House that to meet requirements in the interregnum due to vacancies arising from reasons like inadequate response to advertisements, non-joining of selected candidates, insufficient response to deputation posts and others, efforts are made to recruit persons through short-term contractual hiring. In a written reply to another question, Mohol said that there are 1,279 vacancies of Air Traffic Controllers of the total sanctioned strength of 5,537 ATCOs. Air traffic is managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) through a total sanctioned strength of 5537 Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs), the minister said. A total of 4,320 ATC personnel have been trained from across seven ATC personnel training centres in the country till date in this fiscal as against 4034 in the last financial year, data presented by Mohol in Lok Sabha show. In 2023-24, 3,983 ATC personnel were trained at these facilities; in FY23, 3,535; and in FY 2021-22, 2,265. AAI has seven operational ATC personnel training centres, which include three Air Traffic Services Training Organisations (ATSTOs)--Civil Aviation Training College (CATC), Prayagraj, Hyderabad Training Centre (HTC), Hyderabad and National Institute of Aviation Training and Management (NIATAM), Gondia-- and four regional training centres (RTCs) in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata, Mohol said. The deployment of ATCOs is undertaken by AAI based on the DGCA's Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) on Watch Duty Time Limitations (WDTL) which is as per international norms and also as per air traffic volume at airports so as to ensure safe and efficient air traffic management. Aviation safety is maintained through optimal utilisation of available manpower in accordance with the extant norms and standards. No key operational units have been shut down due to manpower shortage, he said.