Aviation

Indian airports get their first woman firefighter

The last all-male bastion of Indian aviation has fallen with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) appointing its first ever woman firefighter. The state-run authority currently has 3,310 firefighters at its airports as having fire service is a mandatory condition for planes to land anywhere.

The Times of India reports , Now, Kolkata girl Taniya Sanyal will, in a month, join their ranks after completing training that she is undergoing in the city. Considered a profession only for men, AAI till recently did not have recruitment norms for women firefighters.

“We were facing a shortage of firefighters due to expansion and new airports coming up. We brought in contemporary rules and decided to recruit women in this field which required criteria for physical standards. I had done similar rule changes in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for firefighters. We got hold of them and then set the standards for recruiting women firefighters. This is the first time a woman has joined our ranks in this field and it will continue now,” AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra, who brought about this change, told TOI.

The physical standards for male firefighters were having a minimum height of about 1.6 metres and at least weigh 50 kg. The minimum weight for women firefighters was set at 40 kg and height norms were also reduced. While relaxing the norms, the work description for woman firefighters has been kept exactly the same.

Taniya Sanyal, who has done masters in Botany, has been appointed for AAI’s eastern region airports that include Kolkata, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Gaya and Ranchi. Once she completes her training at Kolkata firefighting centre, she will be working at one of these airports.

An elated Sanyal said: “It is a matter of pride and great honour for me. I always wanted to do something challenging. Firefighting is a very noble calling.” Asked if her family supported her when she wanted to take up this job, she said “everyone supported me”.

Related Topics:AAI Firefighters Indian Airports

Aviation

No More Jet Airways. Supreme Court Says “No Choice”, Orders Liquidation

Jet Airways was once one of India’s leading airlines, known for its service and extensive network. Founded in 1993, it served millions of passengers, connecting cities across India and international destinations.

However, since grounding its flights in April 2019, Jet Airways has struggled to navigate financial turbulence, leading to years of efforts to revive the airline and return it to the skies.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the liquidation of Jet Airways, citing “no choice” but to take this decisive step after the resolution plan failed to meet creditor obligations. The court invoked its extraordinary powers under Article 142, which allows it to make orders for “complete justice” in any case, overriding previous tribunal rulings.

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The Jalan-Kalrock Consortium (JKC), which had won the bid to revive Jet, faced criticism for not fulfilling payment commitments to creditors, which included major banks like the State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank.

The Supreme Court’s ruling pointed to “peculiar and alarming” issues surrounding the resolution plan’s implementation, leading to its conclusion that liquidation was the only feasible outcome.

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Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, alongside Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, emphasized that while liquidation should be a last resort, it was necessary as the resolution plan was “no longer capable of implementation.”

In line with this decision, the court ordered that the ₹200 crore already infused by JKC be forfeited and directed the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in Mumbai to appoint a liquidator to oversee the process.

JKC, a partnership between Murari Jalan, a UAE-based Indian entrepreneur, and Florian Fritsch, a Jet shareholder through Kalrock Capital Partners Limited, had taken ownership of Jet Airways two years after it was grounded. The consortium’s inability to fulfill its financial obligations has now led to this final verdict, marking the end of an era for Jet Airways in India.