Bhubaneswar, Oct. 9: The civil aviation ministry is planning to open more flying schools to address the dearth of good commercial pilots in the country, Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pasupati said here today.

The ministry is also ready to co-operate with the Odisha government if it comes up with any proposal to open up new flying schools in the state, he added.

Pasupati, who was here for a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for Ministry of Civil Aviation, said there was not only a dearth of quality pilots in the country, but also trained manpower in other areas of the aviation sector.

"The ministry is thinking about training more youths so that more and more quality pilots and professionals are available as the sector is growing rapidly. Qualitative aspect of such training programmes for youths as per the norms of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) should also be taken care of," he added.

Aviation sources said more than 60 per cent of the pilots working in India were trained in foreign institutions, but pilot training schools in India would produce better pilots. Pasupati added that if the Odisha government came up with a proposal to open another flying institute, the ministry would help it in doing so.

At present, a private company engaged in aviation training runs the state government-owned aviation institute at the Biju Patnaik International Airport.

On the issue of bird menace at the airport, the minister said: "It is seen all over the world. Our skies are relatively safee than in other countries and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security is doing an excellent job by implementing the ICAOguidelines.''

Later, the minister met chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the secretariat and discussed various issues related to air connectivity in and around Bhubaneswar.

Naveen told him that the feeder flight to ferry international passengers to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi should continue and should be extended to foreign locations as well.

He also requested Pasupati to connect Varanasi by air so that the Buddhist circuit in the state could be linked to other such sectors across the country. He also took up the development issue of the Jeypore airstrip in south Odisha so that it could be upgraded into a full-fledged airport in the future.

Today's meet of the consultative committee here discussed the security aspect in all the airports across the country. Five MPs and senior officials of the ministry, Airports Authority of India, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, and Central Industrial Security Force were present at the meeting. The consultative committee also discussed about airport security groups, which is divided into three units - anti-hijacking unit, protection unit and intelligence and surveillance unit, biometric access control at airports, counter terrorism contingency plans, e-boarding facilities and the use of latest technology to aid security and restructuring of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.