IGRUA, Canada's CAE to sign agreement to train pilots in India
New Delhi (PTI): Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Academy (IGRUA) will soon tie up with a foreign institution to train pilots expeditiously to steer the burgeoning air traffic.
Uttar Pradesh-based IGRUA would enter into a contract with Canada-based firm - CAE to train pilots and the proposal is awaiting the nod of the Union Cabinet, Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla told reporters here.
Once approved, it would be a ten-year expertise contract with the CAE, which has promised to churn out 100 pilots per annum to begin with, and subsequently, the training capacity would be enhanced to 200 pilots every year in three years' time at the government-run flying school, he said.
The CAE would bring in full-flight simulators and flying training operations with them, he said. The IGRUA presently trains only forty pilots a year.
Inaugurating a pilot training school here, Chawla stressed the need for pilot and engineering training, saying qualified and skilled pilots are the need of the hour.
"The government's open sky policy has given an entirely new paradigm to civil aviation operations. I agree that all stakeholders, including the government, cannot keep pace with the developments", Chawla said, adding that the government was taking "reasonably feverish" steps now to go into the demands of the sector.
Chawla said a new flying school would be opened in Maharashtra and an on-demand online testing facility for aspiring pilots may also be introduced.
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