Praful Patel takes charge as Minister for Civil Aviation

The Minister announced  that he was looking forward to ‘continuity with change’. While a number of policies would have to be taken forward from the last Government, since the sector was dynamic and was constantly evolving, it might necessitate a number of changes on certain policy matters.
The Minister said that his three main focus would be safety in the Indian skies, building up of more and better infrastructure and strengthening the national carrier Air India. He made it clear that there would be no further privatization of airports in the country. Private airports could come up through Greenfield routes. The Minister also said that the Civil Aviation Ministry would be pro-active in ensuring that Air India emerged as a strong carrier.

Shri Patel, who served as the Minister for Civil Aviation in the last Government, was born on the 17th of February 1957 in Kolkata. A member of the Tenth Lok Sabha at the age of 34 years in 1991, Shri Praful Patel was elected three times consecutively to the Lok Sabha i.e. the 10th, 11th and 12th Lok Sabha. In March 2006, Shri Praful Patel was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha for the second time. He was elected to the current Lok Sabha from the Bhandara - Gondia constituency of Maharashtra. 


(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 02-Jun-09

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