India to celebrate Civil Aviation Centenary Year

India will observe the year beginning February 18, 2011 as the Civil Aviation Centenary Year.On this date in 1911, the first commercial plane flew in India between Allahabad and Naini. An official press release said here today that, during these 100 years, India had become the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world and is now poised to become one of the three largest markets in the world by 2020. The release said the Ministry of Civil Aviation has set up a high-level committee chaired by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to deliberate on the scale and modalities of the celebrations. The committee includes former Civil Aviation Ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Yadav, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shahnawaz Hussain and Anant Kumar; eminent Indians who have contributed to Indian civil aviation like Mr. Rakesh Sharma, first Indian cosmonaut, Mr. Vijaypath Singhania, Air Marshal Arjan Singh, Ms. Saudamini Deshmukh, the first lady pilot in the commander’s seat in India, Mr Satish Sharma, MP and Chairman of Aeroclub of India, Captain G. Gopinath, Mr Dipinder Hooda, MP, Mr Naveen Jindal, MP, Secretaries of the Ministries of Civil Aviation, Defence and Tourism, Chairpersons of all Indian airlines, Chairpersons of all Indian airports, CMD Pawan Hans, Chairman ISRO, representatives of Tour and Travel Operators, eminent pilots, representatives of IGRUA, NFTI, NAL, HAL, BCAS, DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The release said the committee would deliberate upon the period of celebrations, formulate an action plan for the entire year, decide on events which may be undertaken during the centenary year, decide on locations for these events, co-opt members to broaden the membership base, locate appropriate budgetary sources to finance the celebrations, assign responsibilities to individuals and institutions for the organization of events, and constitute Organizing Committees for conduct of events. Activities likely to be taken up during the year include air shows, establishment of an air and space theme park or museum, release of a postage stamp by the President, issue of commemorative coins, publication of a coffee table book, establishment of an aviation university, exhibitions, felicitation of eminent people, institution of annual civil aviation awards and air craft modeling competitions for students. The private sector, which is a make stakeholder in the civil aviation sector, will be major partners in the celebrations, the release added.