22.11.08

Mayawati wants a fast jet


Chief minister Mayawati now gears towards the happening jet-set age. The state civil aviation fleet would soon add a new speedy jet aircraft that could fly Behenji non-stop across the length and breadth of the country. The new aircraft will further give a distinct edge to Mayawati over her counterparts in the country. Her fleet will be as strong as nearly a dozen flying machines including three choppers. By acquiring the Beechcraft Premier recently, which is also a slower jet category plane, UP had already taken a lead over its nearest rival- Maharashtra. As compared to this, most other states have much slower turbo-prop B300 Beechcrafts; CMs who use this include Gujarat’s Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh’s Shivraj Singh Chauhan. In order to go ahead with the purchase of the new aircraft, the government has already set up a highlevel committee headed by chief secretary, Atul Kumar Gupta for this purpose. Other members of the committee are said to be principal secretaries- Anup Mishra (finance), Ravindra Singh (civil aviation) and technical experts, including a state pilot. The government also plans to purchase a helicopter along with this aircraft. The committee, it is said, was supposed to leave for US tentatively on November 24. But its departure has now been postponed as Centre’s clearance is awaited. The government, according to an official, has already made a budgetary allocation of Rs 55 crore for this purpose. This would be the second purchase by the Mayawati government since its formation on May 13, 2007. Some eight months ago, the government had bought the Beechcraft Premiere along with a helicopter of Bell company.The plan, however, has been made to go in for the new purchase. But this time there would be a definite improvement in terms of quality and space. And this would make it possible for the CM to fly from one end to another within the country non-stop, says an official.The driving factor behind these purchase is said to be the security reason of the CM. As a senior official puts it, the jet aircraft with enhanced capacity would be safe for the CM’s journey to different parts of the country. Likewise, he said the helicopter was needed for the purpose of police to tackle the problems in naxal-infested districts like - Sonebhadra, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Hamirpur.With new additions, the state’s civil aviation’s fleet is all set to become larger than ever. Its prime acquisitions include Beechcraft Premier, Superking 300LW, Superking-B2/100, Kingair 390,(twin engine) and Bonanza single engine aircraft and three helicopters of Bell412 and Bell230 with twinengine and Chetak of single engine.

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