Another demand fulfilled: Canada firm to keep managing IGRUA

While CAE had taken over IGRUA’s management in March 2008, it was supposed to turn it into a profitable organisation in the next three years.

The IGRUA in Sonia’s constituency Rae Bareli. Archive

The Union Civil Aviation Ministry (MoCA) has also fulfilled Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s demand of letting Canadian Aviation Electronics (CAE) continue to manage IGRUA.

Following huge losses incurred by IGRUA, the Centre on February 7, 2008, had signed a contract with CAE Flight Training (India) Private Limited for 10 years. While CAE had taken over IGRUA’s management in March 2008, it was supposed to turn it into a profitable organisation in the next three years.

However, IGRUA continued to make heavy losses, as its main source of income was fee charged from students. But the number of students started decreasing because of poor placements. Sources said that the NDA government was planning to discontinue the contract.

In her letter to the Union civil aviation minister on April 1, Sonia had pointed out that IGRUA was making losses because of the use of petrol engine aircrafts. “All this happened due to no fault of CAE. Yet, MoCA is holding CAE responsible…. CAE output is going unrecognised, instead being targeted unfairly.”

Speaking to The Indian Express, Dheeraj Srivastava, Sonia’s private secretary, said: “We have got a response from the Union minister, saying that all demands have been fulfilled, including a two-year extention granted to CAE. Moreover, Air India will recruit 50 per cent of its pilots from IGRUA as promised.”

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