India's aviation safety rank to improve after UN agency audit: DGCA

Says country fared well in ICAO audit of Nov 9-16 covering legislation, licensing, operations, airworthiness, among other areas; India was placed below Pakistan and Nepal an earlier exercise

India will see a substantial improvement in its aviation safety ranking following an audit by the UN aviation agency, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Wednesday.

An audit was carried out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) between November 9-16 covering various areas such as legislation, licensing, operations, airworthiness among others. 

"As per initial reports the mission was highly successful. India has done extremely well and our scores will see a substantial improvement putting us in the company of nations with best safety standards and oversight systems," DGCA said in a press statement. This will be India's best performance till date, it added. The formal communication from ICAO will be received in due course.

ICAO had audited India's aviation safety in November 2017 followed by a second audit in 2018. The audit showed that the country's score declined to 57.44 per cent from 65.82 per cent earlier, placing India below Pakistan, Nepal and many other countries.

However subsequently the civil aviation ministry and DGCA took steps following which the score improved to 74.