Aviation Academy gets a new campus

In a bid to offer a wholesome training facility for the aviation industry, IAA’s new campus was inaugurated in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, recently by P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister for Civil Aviation.

NISHA VERMA

Union civil aviation minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju inaugurated a new campus of Indian Aviation Institute (IAA) in New Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area. Also present at the event was R. N. Choubey, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA); Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and NIAMAR Society and Kumar Rajesh Chandra, Director General, Bureau of Civil aviation Security (BCAS). The academy is a joint venture by BCAS, AAI and Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The new campus is spread over 5.33 acres with state-of-the-art green infrastructure and facilities. Raju congratulated the faculty for the new campus and informed that around 110 crore rupees have been invested in the facility, taking around three years to put it up. “Now, we expect it to function. An equal amount of money has been put through BICAS, DGCA and AAI each. I hope the new institution would pick up the old one,” he said.

Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India and NIAMAR Society, while addressing the gathering, informed that Indian Aviation Academy was a premier training institute of Airports Authority of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation. Prior to IAA, the institute was known as the National Institute of Aviation Management and Research (NIAMAR) and has been a premier institute involved in imparting quality training in aviation sector since 1988.

He added that civil aviation industry required constant upgradation in every regard. “BCAS is a security architecture, and any incident or happening in the world needs to be researched here and they have to be one step ahead of the problem creators. In order for the research to be done, it has to be translated into actionable points and given out in time so that the security can adhere to it. The same thing is needed for ensuring safety in this sector. Also for keeping airports modern and infrastructure going, we need continuous updation. For research regarding all of this, training and this kind of facility are required.”

Congratulating the academy, Choubey said, “I compliment the wisdom and the foresight of the three wings of Civil Aviation—IAA, DGCA and BCAS—who thought and conceptualised this particular initiative. The kind of growth that our aviation sector is undergoing—20 per cent plus every year—it means we need 20 per cent more manpower every year. Now that’s a huge skilling demand which is there and is still unmet. And I hope this institution will provide that. I would urge to the Director of this academy to constantly interact with the various sectors of civil aviation and find out what it is that they need and what kind of skill manpower development they have.”

The academy runs regular training programmes in areas of Airport Operations and Aviation Safety, Airport Engineering and Planning, Air Cargo Management, Environmental concerns in Aviation, Regulatory training through DGCA, Security Training through BCAS, Information Technology, Project Management, Material Management, Airport Commercials, Finance and Human Resource Management. In addition, IAA offers internationally recognised aviation accredited programmes to participants from across the globe in cooperation with partners like International Civil Aviation Organisation, IATA and Airports Council International. IAA acquired the full membership of ICAO TRAINAIR PLUS programme in 2016 and has developed and validated two Standard Training Packages (STPs).