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| Revamp of A-I brass in 30 days: Patel |
| Press Trust Of India / New Delhi Jul 08, 2009, 00:28 IST |
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National carrier to induct seven independent directors and appoint a chief operating officer.
 Cracking the whip to turn around ailing Air India, the government today announced an overhaul of its top management within 30 days by inducting seven independent directors with proven track record on the airline's board.
It will also appoint a chief operating officer (COO) to help CMD Arvind Jadhav beef up its day-to-day flight operations.
Bringing relief to about 30,000 employees, the airline announced that its contractual staff would be given salaries by July 10, while others would get it by July 14.
Facing criticism after the airline's losses mounted to Rs 5,000 crore in 2008-09, the civil aviation ministry decided to revamp the decision-making bodies and disinvest a part of Air India's public stake in the near future.
"You will see in the next 30 days a major change in the top management in Air India. You are going to see a major change in the board. Some heads are going to roll.
"We are going to bring high quality people of great integrity and people with a proven track record in business," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here.
The names doing rounds for inclusion in the AI Board include National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda, Infosys Mentor and Chairman N R Narayana Murthy and TCS CMD S Ramadorai. Official sources said the seven independent directors who are to be inducted would be of international repute.
Taking aggressive steps to turn around the cash-strapped air carrier in 24 months, sources said a global advertisement would be put up shortly for a newly-created post of COO to get a professional airline manager to work under the CMD.
Apart from revamping the board, the government would go in for "partial disinvestment" of the state-owned carrier in the near future, they said, adding that the plan was to ensure a full turnaround for the carrier in the next 24 months.
Patel had earlier said the airline could go for issuing initial public offer (IPO) when its financial position, as well as the stock market situation, stabilised.
Among the various measures to reduce the national carrier's expenses and stem its cash outgo, Air India's fleet acquisition plan of purchasing 111 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus companies would be "reviewed and redrawn".
Air India has till date inducted 49 planes at an estimated cost of over Rs 8,000 crore, even as its private competitors, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, deferred deliveries of some of their aircraft orders this year.
An attractive Voluntary Retirement Scheme would be introduced for the employees, many of whom would also be relocated to the various special business units of the airline.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently extended the government's "fullest support" to the loss-making airline, but asked it to take immediate cost-reduction measures by cutting flab and overhauling its management to make it "leaner and trimmer".
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