The Jharkhand government is eager to save Jharkhand Cooperative Flying Club Ltd (JCFCL), the only cooperative sector flying club in India that claims Ratan Tata and Russi Mody to be its founder members.
The 43-year-old club has been non-functional since 2003 as the Tatas, which once had backed the club, withdrew financial support.
At present, JCFCL is left with a hanger at the Sonari airport here and two outdated aircraft–a serviceable Pushpak and a condemned Swati.
According to the recently revamped JCFCL managing committee, the state cooperative department is eager to provide Rs 5 crore demanded by the club for resuscitation. Dulal Bhuyian, state land reforms, land revenue & cooperative minister, is the president of the club. “The money could be given either by way of a grant or contribution towards its share capital,” said Bhuyian, adding that he was prepared to sanction ‘any amount’ required to save the club.
The club has asked for three five-acre plots near the airports in Jamshedpur, Ranchi and Dumka to set up academy-cum-hostels for carrying out courses on commercial pilot training, aeronautical engineering, airhostess training, etc.
According to Capt Ajay Srivastava, chief pilot to the state government and JCFCL secretary, the club intended to start a pilot training course in the immediate future for 50 students, including 25 adivasi/SC/ST/OBC ones.
The Jharkhand government, which plans to start a flying academy, has been doling out Rs 25 lakh annually as scholarship to each of the 25 adivasi/SC/ST/OBC students selected by its welfare department. The government sends them to institutes in Kanpur and Pondicherry for taking the 18-month commercial pilot course.
Srivastava said JCFCL could easily cash in on the current boom in the aviation industry by imparting quality commercial pilot training here to adivasi/SC/ST/OBC students and thus save the money from going to other states.
“We will request the government to adopt this institution as it will bar duplication of effort (of starting a flying academy elsewhere) as well as save this asset,” said Sajal Charkraborty, JCFCL vice-president.
Both Srivastava and Chakraborty said the state government could be persuaded to give the club on lease the three aircraft it had recently bought at a cost of Rs 4.50 crore. All the aircraft, along with the club’s own Pushpak, could be used for JCFCL’s turn around within a short time, given a good demand for commercial pilots and other courses.