The Rs 500-crore trust, which is being formed by Tata Sons to extend financial support to victims and families of victims of the Air India crash, will likely be formally institutionalised later this month.“This will happen in July itself or by the first half of August. The act of delineation is currently being worked upon,” said an industry source.
While Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran heads the trust, PB Balaji, group chief financial officer, Tata Motors, is also part of the trust, said the sources. Soon after the crash, Air India announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore to each victim and an additional Rs 25 lakh as an immediate disbursement.“The funds from the trust will go to the families of the ones who lost their lives. This will also fund the medical expenses of those who were injured. It will be allocated to the students (from the BJ Medical College in which the aircraft crashed into) for their treatment. The absolute contours will be known later,” one of the sources said.
The Rs 25-lakh compensation is part of the minimum legal liability for all airlines in case of death or injury for international flights under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Montreal Convention 1999. Air India has been working with the affected families to arrange for the interim compensation. Every affected family is being directly assisted by an Air India representative, with nearly two-thirds having already received payment or are in the final stages.An email sent to Tata Sons remained unanswered till the time of going to press.
Addressing Air India employees on July 4, managing director Campbell Wilson had said: “As we transition from the immediate aftermath to mapping the journey ahead, many efforts are underway. Amongst them, Tata Sons is in the process of establishing the apparatus to provide longer-term assistance to the families and survivors.”
The final fatality figure of the crash, as released by authorities, stands at 260, including 241 occupants of the ill-fated plane and 19 people on the ground. 50 of the passengers of the aircraft were foreign citizens. This is not the first time that the group is setting up a trust to manage the affairs. In December 2008, the Tata Group had set up the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust in response to the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai, which had targeted the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. While that trust is still operational, it has branched out to address the needs of survivors and families affected by both manmade and natural disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic.