Air Deccan to set up pilot training centre at B'lore

Air Deccan, the Bangalore-based low-cost airline company, has sought 15-20 acres of land from Karnataka government to set up its residential training centre at Bangalore.

The proposed training centre of Air Deccan is to come up at a cost of Rs 65.6 crore with facilities like aircraft simulators (ATR and Airbus) to train pilots for its expanding fleet, training engineers, flight dispatchers, cabin crew and security persons.

The facility will include hostel, a recreation and health club. According to company's managing director G R Gopinath, the cost of the project is estimated at Rs 65.6 crore and the company has made an application to the principal secretary of the Karnataka government, infrastructure department for allotment of 25 acres of land near the proposed international airport at Devanahalli.

The company has also made alternate arrangements in case Karnataka government does not allot land and has initiated the process of identifying land in the vicinity, he added.

Of the Rs 65.6 crore Air Deccan is spending on training centre, land acquisition is to cost Rs 5 crore, land development and security systems Rs 3 crore, housing for ATR and Airbus simulators Rs 3.4 crore, electrical equipment Rs 1.3 crore, training centre infrastructure Rs 25.8 crore and acquisition of two flight simulators Rs 27 crore.

Deccan Aviation Limited, the holding company of Air Deccan and private helicopter and airline chartering service in the country has announced that to fund this and also for expanding its overall service, it is entering the capital market with a public issue of 24,546,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each through a 100 per cent book building process.

The price band for the issue, through which the company proposes to raise around Rs 400 crore, has been fixed at Rs 150 to Rs 170. The issue would constitute 25 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid-up capital of the company.

Addressing a press conference, Gopinath said, the IPO proceeds would go into setting up of a training centre at Bangalore, a hangar facility for basic and medium-level maintenance checks at Chennai, infrastructure at airports, besides repayment of debt and market development initiatives.