One of the main concerns FAA has expressed in the past and in its recent audit earlier this month is the severe shortage of senior and trained staff at the DGCA.

New Delhi: There have been major changes at the top in the civil aviation bureaucracy on Tuesday evening. Not only will the first day of the new year see a new civil aviation secretary, there will also be a new face as the sector's regulator from Wednesday. Highly placed sources confirmed to Firstpost this evening that Prabhat Kumar, a joint secretary in the ministry, will now hold additional charge as DGCA from Wednesday.

Ashok Lavasa is the new civil aviation secretary, succeeding KN Shrivastava who retired today. Reports were also coming in of an extension of tenure granted to Airports Authority of India, chairman, VP Agarwal, but these remained unconfirmed. His term is also expiring tonight.

The sources quoted above said Kumar has been asked to assume additional responsibility as the DGCA since the Prime Minister's Office is yet to decide on his full time tenure as the regulator. They also said Agarwal's term has been extended "till the Air Traffic Control or ATC is hived off". This means Agarwal's tenure has no time limit defined while Kumar will continue to hold additional charge till the PMO either appoints him full time at the DGCA or selects someone else for the job.

These developments, which are seen as introducing some degree of uncertainty into the civil aviation policy making in the new year, could mean some crucial decisions are either delayed or pushed aside.

For example, the DGCA's office is right now engaged full time with two important issues - satisfying US regulator FAA about safety preparedness of Indian aviation to avert a possible downgrade and providing flying permit to new airline AirAsia India. The airline has been struggling with formalities and paperwork needed to get this permit but now expects the permit to be granted by January-end.

And both these matters need vast aviation expertise for deft handling. One of the main concerns FAA has expressed in the past and in its recent audit earlier this month is the severe shortage of senior and trained staff at the DGCA. Now with the incumbent Arun Mishra gone, this gap will widen further.

Sources in DGCA point out that the government has now agreed to hire examiners from 65 safety inspectors for an annual bill of Rs 40 crore—huge by government standards—just to fulfill the criteria set by FAA.

As for the new civil aviation secretary, the most significant matter on his table would be whether to restart the process of scrapping the 5/20 rule. This rule bars Indian airlines from flying abroad unless they have a fleet of 20 aircraft and five years of domestic operations. Lobbying by powerful incumbent airlines has stalled any move to scrap this retrograde rule but Lavasa may like to restart discussions on this. The other major issue is heavy taxation on jet fuel where the Centre has been unable to convince state governments to rationalise taxes.