India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 25 September published a new circular announcing that all payments for Student Pilot Licence (SPL) applications submitted via the eGCA portal must now be made through Bharatkosh, the Government of India’s central e-payment gateway. The circular is the first visible deliverable from DGCA’s broader digital-finance roadmap unveiled earlier this quarter. Previously, SPL applicants—many of whom are enrolled in India’s fast-growing flight schools—had to generate a challan on eGCA, then complete payment on a third-party banking portal and manually upload proof of payment before the 15-day challan expiry. The new integration eliminates the challan step: fees are auto-calculated, paid, and receipted within the same session, cutting application time by an estimated 40 per cent. Although aimed at trainee pilots, the upgrade is significant for corporate mobility teams. India’s post-pandemic pilot-shortage has forced airlines and business-aviation operators to accelerate in-house cadet programmes. Faster, paperless licensing removes one bottleneck and could shave months off cadet timelines, indirectly supporting capacity growth and more reliable flight schedules for domestic and regional routes. The circular also hints at forthcoming Bharatkosh hooks for other eGCA modules, including aircraft-airworthiness certificates and foreign pilot validations—areas that frequently involve international lessors and expat crew. DGCA says the change is live immediately; applicants part-way through the old process have until 15 October to complete payment under legacy rules.
Source: DGCA ‘What’s New’ notice
