Forced landing for flying training at GATI

Bhubaneswar: Flying training at the government aviation training institute (GATI) in the city has been stopped since January after the state civil aviation department failed to pay up the project allocation fee to the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

The airport authorities had stopped flying operations demanding 50 per cent project allocation fee, a licence fee for training at Biju Patnaik airport. The state civil aviation directorate, which runs GATI, said it had been paying a token money of Re 1 per year for training till January 2012.
“After the AAI charged the fee, the state government could not pay the amount till July. We deposited about Rs 46 lakh with the airport authorities in August seeking permission to continue with the training but are yet to receive any correspondence from them,” said Muralidhar Palai, additional secretary, general administration, who is in additional charge of director civil aviation. Although flying activities have been stopped, theory classes are on, he added. ‘ Already burdened with the licence fee demand, the civil aviation department has outsourced the training to a private company. Global Avianautics LTD (GAL) is running the training with four senior pilots and four engineers.
The state civil aviation department receives Rs 60 lakh per year for providing space and two training flights.
26/11/12 Riyan Ramanath V/Times of India