India's aviation regulator said on Tuesday it had found multiple instances of aircraft defects re-appearing "many times" at Mumbai and Delhi airports, two of the country's busiest.

The repeated instances of defects indicated "ineffective monitoring and inadequate rectification action," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

In the wake of the deadly Air India crash this month, the regulator last week said it had initiated a special audit of the Indian aviation ecosystem to strengthen safety.

(Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram; Editing by Andrew Heavens)