IGRUA must call off tieup with Canadian firm: Panel

NEW DELHI: Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA), the state-run pilot training institute, has not improved its performance after roping in a foreign managing partner, a government committee said, recommending that the partnership be called off. IGRUA’s management denied the panel’s findings, saying productivity at the institute has risen three-fold.

The previous UPA government had signed a contract with CAE, a simulation and training equipment and services company based in Quebec, Canada, in 2008 to manage IGRUA for an annual fee. A five-member committee, headed by Arvind Sardana, a joint director-general of the DGCA, said IGRUA not only failed to achieve the guaranteed performance target, it also did not enhance its brand image. The committee’s report, submitted in 2014, is currently being discussed, a ministry official said.

The panel said that among other things, CAE failed to comply with a clause to cap the maximum course fee after a three-year interim phase at $60,000. The training course fee is $77,000. The placement percentage nosedived from 74.8% before CAE took over the management to 34.4%, the committee said. “We’ve improved our efficiency post the contract,” VK Verma, Director of IGRUA, told ET. “Our safety is 66% better.”