Plane Ambition
On May 6, 2021, Madhya Pradesh’s state aircraft—a turbine propeller-driven B250 King Air—had run into an arrester barrier at the Maharajpur air base in Gwalior, while ferrying Remdesivir injections. Eight months later, the state has decided to gift itself a swanky new jet. A state aircraft is used primarily by the chief minister, the Governor, ministers and at times ruling party functionaries authorised by the CM—under whom the state’s civil aviation department functions.
The B250 King Air had been acquired barely a year before at a cost of Rs 67 crore. Coincidentally, just a day prior to the accident, the state civil aviation department had floated a tender for insuring the aircraft and two helicopters in the fleet—a Eurocopter 155 and a Bell 430. However, the insurance was still to come through, so the aircraft was declared a total loss.
In the past two years, the state government has spent upward of Rs 23 crore in leasing fixed wing aircraft and choppers to ferry its VVIPs. In January 2022, the civil aviation department floated an EoI (expression of interest) for buying a new twin-engine turboprop—in the same class as its earlier plane. However, a technical committee of pilots and engineers came in to suggest that the government buy a jet. A provision of Rs 120 crore was duly made in this year’s budget; the state government is expected to float a tender soon.
Civil aviation experts, however, are questioning the wisdom of this upgrade. They believe the decision is driven more by the VVIPs’ desire to travel by jet than by element of utility. As it turns out, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had in its previous term, prior to 2018, showed a keenness to buy a jet. The Kamal Nath government that took over from it amended the decision in 2019. Incidentally, Nath, through his association with Span Air, has domain knowledge of aviation. He agreed with the argument that the majority of airstrips in MP were not equipped to land jet aircraft. He had then cleared the procurement of the turboprop. “MP has 28 uncontrolled airstrips where jets should not be landed,” says a veteran pilot from the state, questioning the move to buy a jet. “Besides Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur, there are a handful of other airstrips where a jet can land safely.” ‘Uncontrolled’ airstrips imply a landing facility that comprises just a strip and not an airport or ATC set-up to guide the aircraft in. “The primary objective of the state plane is to reach destinations within the state in the shortest time possible, in response to an emergency. Since the primary use is within the state, buying a jet makes no sense as there are few landing options,” the pilot adds. Nor do any of the pilots employed with the state government have the rating to fly jets.
M. Selvendran, secretary, civil aviation, MP, defends the government’s move. Explaining the rationale behind it, he says: “The decision to buy a jet is based on the specifications given by the technical committee. We are aware of the limitations in landing jets on airstrips within the state and are in the process of upgrading them.”
Then there’s the small matter of operating costs: Rs 1.25 lakh per hour for a turboprop versus Rs 2.25 lakh per hour for a jet. However, since the jet is much faster and covers the same distance in lesser time, the state government claims the operational costs can be brought down or balanced out.
The Opposition, too, is not letting the state government off the hook. “A lot of the times,” says Congress spokesperson J.P. Dhanopiya, “the state plane is used to ferry ruling party leaders. The state’s leadership wants to ingratiate itself with its bosses by giving them a fancy aircraft to fly in.”
Other state governments that do use jets, such as UP and Maharashtra, have them as a second aircraft. They use turboprops in their fleet for intrastate travel and the jet for travel to the national capital or metros.
The MP government already has a debt stretching upward of Rs 2.5 lakh crore and plans to borrow Rs 67,000 crore in this budget. But what’s a little red slipstream when you want to be counted among the jet set? ■
AFTER LOSING A NEW AIRCRAFT WORTH Rs 67 CR. AND SPENDING Rs 23 CR. IN LEASING, MP WANTS TO BUY A Rs 120 CR. JET