Tatas announce Rs 500 crore trust for Ahmedabad plane crash victims

The Tata Group on Friday announced the setting up of a Rs 500-crore trust to be called 'The AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust' for the victims of the Air India plane crash which killed 260 people in Ahmedabad last month.

Tata Sons and Tata Trusts have committed Rs 250 crore each to the trust, which has been registered as a public charitable trust in Mumbai.

"The Trust will provide both immediate and continuing support to the dependents/next-of-kin of the deceased, to those who were injured, and to all others who are directly or collaterally affected by the accident," Tata Sons said in a statement on Friday.

Besides, the trust will provide aid and assistance for alleviation of any trauma or distress suffered by the first responders, medical and disaster relief professionals, social workers and governmental staff who provided invaluable institutional support and service in the aftermath of the accident.

A five-member board of trustees will manage and administer the trust. Former Tata veteran S. Padmanabhan and Tata Sons' general counsel Sidharth Sharma have been appointed trustees, with three other trustees to be appointed shortly.

The philanthropic objectives of the trust include ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 crore for those deceased, medical treatment of those who suffered serious injuries, and support for rebuilding the B.J. Medical College Hostel infrastructure in Ahmedabad, which was severely damaged in the accident.

According to the statement, the trust will be funded and will commence its work in all earnest after necessary registration with tax authorities and other operational formalities, currently underway, are completed, the statement said.

On 12 June, an Air India Boeing Dreamliner, en route from Ahmedabad to London, crashed into the medical college hostel building soon after takeoff, killing 260 people, including 19 on the ground. Of the 242 passengers on board the ill-fated Boeing 787-8, only one survived.