Hemant Soren inaugurates Jharkhand Flying Institute in Dumka

    Dumka, Nov 24 (PTI) Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday inaugurated the Jharkhand Flying Institute (JFI), aiming to provide commercial training to pilots, at Sido-Kanhu airport in Dumka district.
    The CM also inaugurated 12 other projects worth Rs 190.64 crore, and laid the foundation for 14 projects to
the tune of Rs 123.48 during the occasion.
    He said the foundation of the flying institute was laid by the then chief minister Shibu Soren in 2008.
    “Instead of taking this project forward, our opposition (when it was in power) had buried it in a sealed box,” the CM alleged.
    In the first phase, 30 candidates will be selected on basis of merit through competitive examination. A total of 15 seats will be for the reserved category students.
    “The government will bear all the financial burden of these 15 pilots in the training institute. They will get free training, food and lodging,” Soren said.
    The Deoghar airport, the construction of which started in 2017-18, not only became ready in a short span of time, but also started airline services, he said.
    But, this training institute could not be started, "as our opposition did not want children of tribals to progress,” Soren said, referring to the previous BJP government.
    “The opposition had shut thousands of schools during its tenure. After our government (JMM-led alliance) came to power, we set up schools with a new vision, which got recognised as schools of excellence. Our government is also sending youths abroad for higher education, spending crores,” he asserted.
    The chief minister also took stock of aviation security, the theory classes for pilots, simulator training, flight operations, and the methods of emergency situation management on the occasion.
    Later, speaking to reporters, Soren said the training cost per student will be around Rs 65-70 lakh.
    Asked about the recent narrative around the BJP forming government in Jharkhand after the NDA’s success in the recent Bihar polls, Soren said, “This is their thinking. We know how to respond to it.”
    Soren also reviewed the progress of the Maslia-Raneshwar Mega Lift Irrigation Project, an ambitious scheme of the state government aimed at providing year-round irrigation facilities to farmers of the Santhal Pargana region.
    S P Sinha, Chairman-cum-MD of the institute, said it got approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on August 7, 2025.
    Sinha, who is also Director (Operations) of the state’s Civil Aviation Department, said the runway of the airport is being extended from 4,000 feet to 6,000 feet so that small flight services could be started.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)