Chennai: Five banks have asked Director General of Civil aviation (DGCA) not to give permission to the Paramount Airways based here to fly again as it owes Rs 550 crores.
M.Thiagarajan the owner of Paramount Airways, headquarter in Chennai, stopped services in 2010 as it ran into losses. According to the letter from IDBI it had given loan of Rs50.42 lakh based on fund and non-fund-based working capital in 2006. It has claimed first charge on Paramount current assets says Chief recovery manager IDBI Bank in the letter. Other State owned lenders and bankers who had loaned Paramount Airways are Central Bank of India (Rs.30 crore), Indian Bank (Rs.31.5 crore), Andhra Bank (Rs.41.5 crore), Bank of India (Rs.227.5 crore) and SBI (Rs.84.8 crore). The total exposure of Paramount to all the lenders is Rs.550 crore.
Thiagarajan applied in January to DGCA for being airborne again and showed a revival plan. He was operating Embraer aircraft. This airline was predominant player in the South and was one of the few airways that connected Chennai to smaller towns of TamilNadu. There were rumours that the airlines was funded by a member of the Karunanidhi family. Maran’s have a major share in Spice Jet.
18/02/13 TruthDive
