Bangladesh Civil Aviation Turns Down Delhi Proposal

From a Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has turned down India’s proposal for conventional routes between Kolkata and Dhaka with further connectivity to Guwahati. “Proposal for conventional and now Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) routes between Kolkata and Dhaka with further connectivity to Guwahati has been declined by the CAAB,” an official in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.

The proposal for such conventional routes is needed to avert all possible mid-air disaster.

On October 31, two private airline flights were on a reciprocal track, which could have led to the breach of separation while flying in Bangladesh airspace. “However, timely corrective action taken by Air Traffic Controller in Kolkata avoided the emerging situation,” the official said.

Sources said, till date, nine such incidents have been reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in 2017 and 2018 along the India-Bangladesh region.

The CAAB was approached by Airports Authority of India (AAI) for conversion of various bi-directional ATS routes passing through Bangladesh airspace connecting Kolkatta, into pairs of uni-directional routes (inbound and outbound).

In March 2018, the CAAB accepted to bifurcate Guwahati-Agartala ATS route. Unidirectional route (R472) in that sector has been established and implemented in March 2018.

“We are in touch with the Bangladesh aviation to keep our airspace trouble free,” said the official.

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