ATC to handle fivefold passenger surge as India vows to grow to 1.3 billion air passengers by 2047

CHENNAI:
India’s air traffic controllers will have to handle a more than fivefold increase in passenger numbers by 2047 as Union Minister of Civil Aviation of India Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu on Tuesday said India aims to grow from 24 crore air passengers to 130 crore passengers in the next two decades (2047).

In a recorded message to controllers gathered in Chennai for International Day of Air Traffic Controllers, the minister said the Airport Authority of India has earmarked Rs 3,490 crore for modernizing air navigation infrastructure, including Rs 1,532 crore for automation of air traffic management systems.

Acknowledging the strain of long watches, night shifts and split-second decisionsby air traffic controllers, Naidu said technology could assist but “judgment, composure and responsibility will always be human." He also highlighted  some 840 additional controller posts have been created in recent years.

The minister said flexible use of airspace has saved an estimated Rs 895 crore and nearly 1.95 lakh tons of carbon dioxide since August 2020.

Speaking on the occasion, Nivedita Dubey, Member (Human Resources) of the Airports Authority of India, has vowed an overhaul of career progression, a voice in how heavily funded navigation technology is bought, and open access to senior management.

She said the organisation was aware of “massive stagnation” at certain levels of the air traffic management (ATM) cadre, a long-running grievance of controllers’ representatives. A multidisciplinary team of officers, including some from ATC, has been formed to draw up a road map, she said.

The team is also reviewing a McKinsey study from a few years ago, which proposed restructuring and led to new posts in ATC and communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS). Dubey said the AAI was considering a fresh study through the Quality Council of India.

Dubey said the AAI has signed memoranda of understanding with several Indian Institutes of Management and will soon begin nominating officers for specialist programmes.

K Murali, general manager for air traffic control in Chennai, described how air traffic controller as a profession transformed since the 1930s and 1940s, when Chennai controllers tracked aircraft on a small blackboard, noting position, destination, timing and altitude, and calculating by hand where two flights might meet. Today, he said, “almost everything is automated”. Software computes aircraft speeds, predicts where flight paths may cross and alerts controllers to potential conflicts.

He said the clearest operational test came when Pakistan closed its airspace to Indian flights during Operation Sindoor. Airlines submitted alternative routes, controllers said which were unavailable, and operators chose among the rest, Murali said. The choice carried a cost -- one detour might add an hour of fuel, another three. Controllers approved and facilitated the flight plans.  The overall air space that Indian Air Traffic Controllers handles is around 5 million Square Nautical Miles which is equivalent to thrice the Indian Land Mass.

TN Wetland Authority stops short of ban on construction in buffer zone

 Restrictions proposed to protect drainage channels that sustain Ramsar listed Wetland

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:
Tamil Nadu’s wetlands authority has proposed allowing construction within parts of the buffer zone around Chennai’s Pallikaranai marsh, subject to restrictions designed to protect the drainage channels that sustain the Ramsar-listed wetland, according to official sources.

Official sources told TNIE that the Tamil Nadu State Wetlands Authority in its status report, which has been submitted to Madras High Court, has stated that construction need not be prohibited across the entire zone of influence and can instead be regulated according to site-specific scientific and hydrological characteristics. The revised interim zone covers 128.19 hectares across 36 survey numbers identified as potentially affecting the marsh’s hydrology.

The proposal follows objections from real estate developers, including CREDAI Chennai, Olympia Tech Park and Navin Housing and Properties, against the earlier demarcation drawn up after the Madras High Court’s August 4 order. The authority has not disclosed the extent of the changes made to the original boundary.

It is learnt that the authority received 23 representations from landowners, developers and others seeking the exclusion of privately owned patta land, reconsideration of specific survey parcels, recognition of existing buildings and development permissions, and a clearer distinction between the wetland boundary, its zone of influence and developed private land.

Following a further court order on September 7, officials met on September 30 to reconsider the proposed boundary. They examined historical Google Earth imagery to assess changes in water spread, low-lying areas, drainage channels, open land and built-up areas. Individual parcels were reassessed for their hydrological connectivity, drainage pathways, nearby wetlands, existing infrastructure and land use.

Sources said the authority observed thast the exercise sought to address concerns over the inclusion of private and some government land while balancing conservation and development.

Pallikaranai village accounts for 23 of the 36 survey-number entries in the revised zone. The others are in Sholinganallur, Karapakkam, Injambakkam, Perumbakkam, Okkiyam Thoraipakkam and Perungudi. Two parcels in Perumbakkam fall in Chengalpattu district, with the remaining parcels in Chennai district.

The proposed safeguards would prohibit the blocking or diversion of established inlet and outlet channels, natural drains and other water pathways. Dumping solid waste and construction or demolition debris in drainage routes would be barred, as would discharging untreated sewage, effluent or wastewater into watercourses connected to the wetland. Permanent alterations to established hydrological connections and industries classified as Red Category for their high pollution potential would also be prohibited.

Any construction within the proposed zone would require a no-objection certificate from the district-level wetlands management committee.

The approach would make the preservation of water flows, rather than a blanket construction ban, the central regulatory test for the interim zone. The authority says the safeguards are intended to prevent development from disrupting water entering or leaving the marsh or damaging its ecological character.

The revised boundary remains provisional. The authority says the final zone of influence will be determined only after scientific and cadastral assessments and ground verification under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, and the associated guidelines.

The report is to be placed before the High Court in about a dozen connected petitions, official sources said.

writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu seeks 70% GST share, special package f...

writingonblog uncensored: Tamil Nadu seeks 70% GST share, special package f...: CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Dr N Marie Wilson on Thursday called for a fundamental change in the sharing of GST revenue, arguing th...

Tamil Nadu seeks 70% GST share, special package for exporting states

CHENNAI:
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Dr N Marie Wilson on Thursday called for a fundamental change in the sharing of GST revenue, arguing that states should retain 70% of the proceeds instead of the current 50:50 split with the Union government.

Making the demand at his first meeting of the GST Council in New Delhi, the minister said states bear more than 60 per cent of public expenditure therefore need a larger share of GST revenues.

Urging the Union Government to come up with special packages for exporting States like Tamil Nadu, he said these should be outside the devolution mechanism and outside GST revenue share, so that the States are motivated to invest further and better in physical and social infrastructure for building a competitive ecosystem.

Drawing attention to several representations received from various trade associations of the State during the pre-GST Council consultative meeting held on September 3, 2026, Wilson highlighted that the differential GST rates on staple foods like rice is anomalous and exemption should be given irrespective of the quantity.

The minister, who was nominated to the Council by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, also called for a reduction in the GST rate on job work from 18% to 5%, arguing that the lower rate would ease working-capital pressures on MSMEs and benefit a wide range of industries, from agarbatti manufacturers to automobile companies and exporters.

Dr Wilson also backed backed the proposed Rs 10,000 minimum tax threshold for issuing notices under Sections 73, 74 and 74A of the GST Acts, saying it would reduce compliance burdens on taxpayers facing action over relatively small amounts.

He backed the move to include input tax credit accumulated on capital goods in GST refunds for exporters. He also welcomed the plan to extend refunds under the inverted duty structure to input services, and a looser regime on blocked credits that narrows the list of exclusions. The inverted duty structure arises when inputs are taxed at a higher rate than the finished product. On the last two measures he warned that the revenue loss would fall on the states.

S Nagarajan, the state’s commissioner of commercial taxes, and other senior officials accompanied Dr Wilson.

writingonblog uncensored: Four family property deeds to go paperless

writingonblog uncensored: Four family property deeds to go paperless: CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu will make the registration of four types of family property deeds paperless from November 2, allowing documents to be cr...

Four family property deeds to go paperless

CHENNAI:
Tamil Nadu will make the registration of four types of family property deeds paperless from November 2, allowing documents to be created, submitted and processed online while requiring the parties to appear before the sub-registrar only for authentication, according to a government order issued by the Commercial Taxes and Registration Department on Wednesday.

The move covers settlement deeds, release deeds, partition deeds and revocation of settlement deeds relating to family arrangements, and is part of the Registration Department's continuing shift towards digital registration under Project STAR 3.0.

According to the GO, the digitally executed deeds and supporting documents will be submitted through the online registration facility and processed through an electronic workflow. After registration, the document will be digitally sent to the citizen's login and preserved in the STAR system.

However, the paperless system will not do away with the physical appearance of the parties. They will still have to appear before the concerned sub-registrar for identification, Aadhaar authentication and completion of the prescribed registration formalities, the GO said.

The move is aimed at reducing the repeated handling, movement and scanning of paper documents and the need to maintain physical records at different stages of the registration process. It is also expected to improve traceability and retrieval of registered documents.

The government order said the Registration Department had proposed the expansion of paperless registration as part of its wider technology-led reforms to make registration services simpler, more transparent and citizen-friendly.

The department began computerisation with the launch of the STAR platform in 2000 and introduced paperless registration for selected categories of documents in January this year.

The government had subsequently introduced the first phase of Anywhere Registration in August, covering first sale of plots by promoters and first sale of flats by builders along with consecutive deposit of title deeds.

The latest expansion follows an announcement made by the Commercial Taxes and Registration Minister in the Assembly on September 7 that the four categories of family-arrangement documents would be brought under paperless registration.

The GO said the November 2 rollout would be subject to software readiness, completion of necessary workflow modifications and training of departmental officials and stakeholders.

Chennai port turns to digital tracking to ease export container flows

CHENNAI:
Chennai Port Authority has launched a digital system 'Port Setu' to track export containers on the road between inland warehouses and the port gate. It is the first step toward making gate entry fully paperless.

Port Setu, uses automatic number plate recognition, optical character recognition and RFID readers, linked to the customs ICEGATE platform. It records the time each trailer takes to travel from a container freight station (CFS) to the port. It went live on September 17 and was formally launched on Thursday.

The system, developed by the Chennai chapter of the National Association of Container Freight Stations (NACFS), went live on September 17 and was formally launched on Wednesday. It forms the first phase of an Intelligent Vehicle Monitoring System (IVMS) being implemented under the central government's One Nation One Port Process (ONOP) initiative to standardise and digitise procedures across Indian ports.

For the freight stations, the main promise is more efficient use of trucks. Port Setu gives them real-time visibility of trailer arrivals at the port. The authority expects this to cut turnaround times and allow one extra round trip for every six made.

The next phase is expected to take the system closer to a paperless port gate. Under Phase 2 of the IVMS, the container terminals will digitise the verification of seal intactness. Chennai Port Authority envisages that this will eventually make gate-entry procedures completely digital and paperless, a release stated.

Sachin S Kurve, chairperson of Chennai Port Authority and KPL, said the system would provide greater visibility of container movements and help CFSs optimise trailer management within the port's jurisdiction.