Feteing frontline workers proves costly
Show by Army, Navy and Air Force will cost around `50 crore
The Indian armed forces paying tribute today to frontline workers battling the Coronavirus outbreak was an expensive affair, considering the poor health of the economy which has been hit hard due to the prolonged lockdown.
Going by conservative estimates, the drill by the Army, Navy and Air Force will have cost the Centre around `50 crore, if not more. Criticism has come from various quarters over the need for this exercise in these difficult times when migrant workers are undergoing untold hardships, even death in some cases as they struggle to reach their homes with hardly any means of transport available, and hospital staff not having the required personal protection equipment.
If the hush-hush discussions within the rank and file of the armed forces are any indication, many of them too felt that the exercise was avoidable.
Sources in the defence establishment told Deccan Chronicle that the operating cost to fly the bigger fighter planes for an hour is between `6.5 and `7 crore. ‘Operating cost’ means fuel, maintenance, man hours and all other expenditures, they said. The cost of flying smaller aircraft like trainers and helicopters is around `2 lakh per hour of flying per aircraft. For operating a military transport aircraft such as the C-130J Super Hercules, the cost is three times that of fighter planes. As part of Sunday’s exercise, two C130J Super Hercules aircraft flew over Srinagar and Chandigarh. These aircraft were also part of the fly-past over Rajpath in New Delhi. Similarly, IAF's Su-30 aircraft flew over Marine Drive in Mumbai. “These three aircraft took off from Pune. This itself cost between `45 and `50 lakh,” sources said.
Across the country, including Telangana state, IAF choppers showered flower petals on hospitals while in Kochi, surveillance aircraft conducted a fly-past. “For the whole of yesterday, trial runs were conducted which involved a lot of flying across all states,” sources said.