The Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority has turned down New Delhi’s proposal for conventional routes between Kolkata and Dhaka with further connectivity to Guwahati.
Giving this information to NE Now, a senior official in the Civil Aviation Ministry has said that proposals for conventional and now Performance Based Navigation (PBN) routes between Kolkata and Dhaka with further connectivity to Guwahati have been declined by the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).
The approval for such conventional routes was 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 emerging situation,” 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 India-Bangladesh region.
The Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority was approached by Airports Authority of India (AAI) for conversion of various bi-directional ATS routes passing through Bangladesh airspace connecting Kolkata, into pairs of uni-directional routes (inbound and outbound).
In March 2018, CAAB accepted to bifurcate Guwahati-Agartala ATS route. Unidirectional route (R472) in that sector has been established and implemented since March 2018.
“We are always in touch with the Bangladesh aviation to keep our air space trouble free,” said the official.