The Civil Aviation Research Centre (CARO), India’s first research centre in the aviation sector which is coming up at Hyderabad’s Begumpet airport, will be up and running by the end of 2023. Stating this in the Lok Sabha on August 5, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also disclosed that the Airports Authority of India was executing the project at a cost of Rs.402 .13 crore.
The Minister’s announcement was in response to a query from Dr G. Ranjith Reddy, Member of Parliament representing the Chevella constituency in Telangana. Elaborating on the role CARO will play, Scindia informed the House that the centre will have research and development facilities, airports and air navigation services (ANS), air traffic management communications domain simulators, network emulator, visualisation and analysis labs, surveillance labs navigation systems emulation and simulation labs.
CARO, which is being established on a 20-acre plot of land within Begumpet airport, will offer solutions in key areas in the civilian aviation sector in India. Among its charter of duties, CARO is mandated to research and ingeniously find solutions to the ever-increasing volume of air traffic in the country, work on improving safety of passengers, churn up new ideas for the smooth flow of air traffic movement and study and identify, along with other Central agencies, the viability of new air traffic routes.
The delayed CARO—its foundation stone was laid by Suresh Prabhu, the then Civil Aviation Minister in July 2018, and it was originally scheduled to be operational by May 2022—will also house centres that deal with data management, project support, network infrastructure and software solutions and tools. CARO will also house cybersecurity and threat analysis laboratories.
Ranjith Reddy also sought to know if the government proposed to set up an aviation university at Begumpet airport for imparting education relating to the aviation sector in view of the huge space available at the airport, which is located in the centre of the city. Scindia said in the statement that no such proposal was currently under consideration of the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Once CARO is operational, India will join an elite band of a dozen or so countries worldwide which have established such a research facility.
Ever since the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad became operational in March 2008, Begumpet airport has been utilised by the Indian Air Force for training its pilot cadets. The airport is also the landing ground for rotary wing aircraft used for government purposes and the chartered flights of VIPs and politicians.
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