AI CMD leases house for 36L, gets govt rap

New Delhi: The government was forced to step in and direct the person expected to set Air India's messy house in order — CMD Arvind Jadhav — to cancel an expensive lease of a house rented for him in Delhi by the cash-strapped airline. AI had taken a house in D block of the tony Vasant Vihar for a cool Rs 3 lakh a month or Rs 36 lakh annually!
The merged Air India-Indian Airlines combine has its headquarters in Mumbai where the CMD already gets an official accommodation in the posh Sterling Apartment on Peddar Road. The airline in Delhi has a three-bedroom guesthouse, also called Sterling Apartment, on Rao Tula Ram Marg near Chanakyapuri.
The aviation ministry got an anonymous complaint from ''an honest Air Indian'' about this expensive lease. Following this, aviation secretary M M Nambiar is leant to have taken this issue up with Jadhav. ''The airline HQ is in Mumbai and the CMD is entitled to an official home there. ... Also, the airline is simply low on funds and finds it difficult to pay salaries on time,'' said highly placed sources.
The CMD was also told that if this house had to be retained, then the airline should not be expected to pay for it. Realizing that the government was not going to relent, Jadhav got the lease cancelled. This decision was conveyed in writing to the ministry.
03/11/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Nov 2010