Vikram Dev Dutt appointed Chairman of Air India Limited

Vikram Dev Dutt was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Air India LimitedIndia Limited by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on Tuesday. He will get the rank and pay of Additional Secretary, the government said in a notification.

Dutt is a 1993 IAS officer from the AGMUT Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territory cadre.

He was appointed as the Air India chief in rank and pay of additional secretary, according to an order issued by the Personnel Ministry.

Chanchal Kumar has been appointed Managing Director, National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. Kumar, a 1992 batch IAS officer, is currently posted in Bihar.

In October last year, the government accepted the highest bid by a Tata Sons company for 100 per cent equity shares of Air India and Air India ExpressIndia Express, along with its 50 per cent stake in the ground-handling company AISATS -- the first privatisation in 20 years.

The government had signed a share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Tata's will pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.

At the time, the government had stated that it wanted to complete the transactions, which included Tatas paying Rs 2,700 crore in cash, by December-end, but it has been delayed by a month until January as the completion of procedures takes longer than expected, according to the news agency PTI.

As per the conditions in the SPA, all formalities of handover would have to be completed within 8 weeks, but this date can be mutually extended by the buyer and seller and is being done in this case.