Maya to call it a day for Kanpur flying club

Lucknow: After spending about Rs 2 crore annually on a defunct flying club in Kanpur for more than five years, the Uttar Pradesh government has finally decided to get rid of all the rusting trainer aircraft. The government now plans to hand over the airport to the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
The Mayawati government will soon float global tenders for the sale of these five Zenith-make two-seater trainer aircraft. The decision has been taken on the recommendations of a government constituted committee headed by senior bureaucrat Rohit Nandan.
The club was set up by a private company, Cooperative Hind Flying Club, in the early sixties. Apart from training pilots, the club was also using their aircraft for flying VIPs in the state. In 1980 the club was liquidated, which caused a problem for the state government, as it did not have any other arrangement for flying the VIPs.
The government then set up the Directorate of Civil Aviation. “Earlier, the main purpose of the club was to continue with flying VIPs. Later, it was decided to provide training as well,” confirmed a senior government official. Since the government already had its own three flying clubs at Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad, a committee was set up to discuss the feasibility of running another club. In 2001 the committe recommended continuing with the Kanpur Flying Club and closing down the rest. The district magistrate, Kanpur, was made its director.
“But the club could never function properly in want of a chief flying instructor. We advertised a few times but did not get good response,” said an official from the Civil Aviation Directorate.
The Kanpur Flying Club had a staff of about 50 people and the government was spending about a crore annually on their salaries alone, besides spending the same amount on the maintenance of the whole paraphernalia.
07/09/08 Alka Pande/Lucknow Newsline