The dream of aspiring youngsters of North Karnataka region to be a pilot will be a reality soon as works to set up two Flying Training Centres are in full swing at Belagavi Airport. If everything goes as planned, the centres will start in April. The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation had approved setting up six training institutes at five airports, including Belagavi Airport in the country. Flying Training Centres will be set up at Belagavi and Kalaburgi of Karnataka, Jalgaon of Maharashtra, Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu and Lilabari Airport in Assam. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is setting up the centres to meet the growing demand for commercial pilots in the country.
AAI had floated a tender for leasing the land for the establishing FTOs on Design, Built, Operate, Maintain and Transfer (DBOMT) basis at these six airports. On May 31, 2021 the tender was awarded to Samvardhane Technologies, Bengaluru and Red Bird Flight Training Academy, New Delhi, to set up the two flying institutes at Belagavi Airport. A space of 5,000 square metres of land has been handed over to each agency for the construction of training institutes on a 25-year lease period. The airport had signed an agreement with these two agencies on June 30 and July 1 and the site was handed over.
As per the agreement, the airport authority has started constructing a 247-metre-long and 10.5-metre-wide taxiway that connects the Apron and Hanger. The agencies have already started the fabrication work to build the Hangar and Apron at Kalaburagi. AAI has instructed the agencies to complete the work by April. If all the work is completed on time, the flying schools are likely to be inaugurated by April.
Nothing to do with the Flying Training Centre(FTC) planned in Hubballi
Rajesh Kumar Maurya, Director, Belagavi Airport, shared that, "Some rumours were spread that the Flying Training Centre sanctioned for Belagavi is shifted to Hubballi. But, it is not true. We have not received any information in this regard and the work on setting up a flying training centre is in progress in Belagavi. A union minister has tweeted that an FTC is planned in Hubballi, that does not mean Belagavi's centre will be shifted to Hubballi. If everything goes as planned, the flying training centres will start working by April this year."
