AAI begins work on pilot training academy

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has taken up work to bring Gondia, the constituency of Union aviation minister Praful Patel on the air map of the country.

Patel's dream project of the National Flying Training Institute (NFTI) at Birsi, about 18 km from Gondia, is expected to start functioning by May 2007.

It would cover over 485 hectares of land and would be the second facility of its kind in the country after the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy (IGRUA), at Fursatganj Airfield, Rae Bareli.

However, it will be much bigger than the IGRUA and have a Pilots Training Academy, a Maintenance Engineering Academy, and an Aviation Security Academy under its wings.

Birsi already has an airstrip which was developed by the British for military use during World War II.

However, the airstrip can be used only for light aircraft. Work is underway to strengthen the airstrip and extend it so that commercial aircraft can use it. The AAI has roped in former airport director, Nagpur, Gopal Mehta as consultant for the project.

The runway, according to the plan, would be extended from the present 5,800 feet to 7,500 feet in the first phase of expansion. It will later be extended to 9,000 feet in the second phase. The Rawanvadi-Kamtha road will later have to be diverted as a part of the extension work on the runway.

Two taxiways, an apron, a hanger and a separate taxiway with a helipad will come up in the first phase of the project. A total of Rs 41 crore has been sanctioned for construction work on 405 hectares of land.

The AAI has already acquired 84 hectares of land in addition to the 321 hectares it owns. It will later require another 80 hectares for work to be taken up under the second phase of the project.

The project is expected to change the face of Gondia and neighbouring villages. Land from seven villages will eventually come under the project but only a few villagers of Birsi will have to be relocated and some encroachments removed.

A plan has also been worked out to construct a model village for those displaced in the second phase of the project.

An administrative building, hostel and officers' residential quarters will be constructed in the second phase of the expansion project.

There have been talks about trainees from the IGRUA being sent to Gondia during the winter months for training at Birsi. This is because of the fog in North India which hampers training sorties during these months.

Meanwhile, land prices in and around Gondia have started soaring and fields which used to cost a few thousand rupees an acre some time back, are now going for lakhs.