New Delhi: India, which plans to start flights to Kabul whenever Pakistani airspace opens, agreed to take a slew of steps on May 7, including waiving off expenses, to assist Afghanistan in building up its aviation infrastructure.

This was decided at a meeting between Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain and his Afghan counterpart Mirwaiz Sadiq. The two were accompanied by top officials of External Affairs and Civil Aviation Ministries, besides those from Air India (AI), Indian Airlines (IA) and Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Following India's fresh peace initiative with Pakistan, Hussain has announced that IA would start operations to Kabul as soon as Pakistani airspace opens for Indian air traffic.

As part of the measures, government would waive off an expenditure of about $ 797,000 for maintenance and crew support by AI for a period beyond December 2003. AI would also undertake repairs of two Ariana Airways aircraft at a cost of $ 113,000, an official release said.

Afghan mechanical engineers, student pilots, cabin crew, flight despatchers, instructor pilots and instructor flight engineers would also be trained by AI, IA and AAI, who would also provide training to the Ariana staff in the fields of accounts, finance, commercial and computers, it said.

The AAI, which would provide consultancy services for reconstruction of the Herat airport, has also agreed to waive over Rs 15 lakh worth of outstanding amount for Ariana's cargo handling.

Government would also take up the issue of exemption of old dues of over Rs one crore on account of excise duty on aviation turbine fuel uplifted by Ariana during its earlier operations to Amritsar, it added.

PTI