The Union Cabinet on Tuesday finally cleared the India-UAE (Abu Dhabi) Bilateral Air Services Agr-eement signed in April this year, and granted post-facto approval for the pact under which there has be-en a nearly four-fold seat entitlement-hike in weekly seats for designated carriers of the two countries from 13,300 to nearly 50,000 in three years.
Top government sources confirmed the agreement was cleared at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday. The bilateral agreement had attracted controversy earlier, with some MPs opposing it, that prompted a detailed chronicling of facts by the government a few weeks ago. Its critics had alleged the bilateral agreement was inked to facilitate the Jet-Etihad FDI deal, but the government argued these were separate issues. Civil aviation minister Ajit Sin-gh staunchly defended the India-UAE bilateral entitlement hike, saying this would bring in badly-needed FDI into India.