Patna, Apr 10 (UNI) The fleet of the state government's aircrafts are running short of pilots to fly the aero-machines, in spite of having three US-made Aircrafts and one French Dolphin helicopter.

Informed sources here today said there are requirments of seven pilots for Aircrafts and four for chopper, while the state government has only two pilots and both of them were deployed to fly the government Aircrafts.

Contrary to the fact, the government chopper is operated with the pilot hired from Pawanhans. Even the flight engineers for the maintenance of aircrafts, and the cabin crew were hired from the same agency as the government is running short of staff to manage the affairs, sources said.

However, this process of hiring external staff is proving to be a costly affair as the state government is paying much more than that is paid to regular crew, sources said, adding the amount is almost three times of the sum, the state government need to pay to the regular staff.

The successive state governments had tried to fill the vacancies by recruiting regular staff but failed to address the issue as the payments offerred by the Bihar government is less than the other state governments and the pilots prefer to go with the handsome offer, the sources maintained.

UNI RH LL PDT HT1505