Ranchi, Nov 8 (IANS) The Jharkhand government Saturday announced setting up of an aviation academy to train pilots in the state. “We pay a hefty amount to other aviation companies to train students from tribal communities. Now the students will be trained here,” Chief Minister Shibu Soren told reporters here.

At present, the state government spends nearly Rs.70 million a year on training tribal students to become pilots.

The academy, with a proposed investment of Rs.5 billion, will initially train a batch of 30 tribal students from the state. As the academy expands, it will admit non-tribal students from across the country and abroad.

Soren will lay the foundation stone of the academy in Dumka Nov 10.

State government officials said the institute would charge Rs.3.5 million from international students and Rs.2.5 million from Indian students.

“Many foreign countries have shown interest in getting their students enrolled in our proposed aviation academy,” an official of the Jharkhand civil aviation department said.

The academy has been named Sona Sobran Rashtriya Udan Academy, after Soren’s father. Dumka is also the Lok Sabha constituency of Soren.