Tatas sets up Rs 500 crore AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust for Ahmedabad plane crash victims

Tata Group on Friday announced setting up a Rs 500-crore trust - The AI-171 Memorial and Welfare Trust - for the victims of the Air India plane crash that 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. S Padmanabhan, a former Tata veteran, Sidharth Sharma, Tata Sons' General Counsel, have been appointed trustees and the three other trustees will be appointed shortly.

The philanthropic objects 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 BJ Medical College Hostel infrastructure in Ahmedabad, which was damaged in the accident.

According to the statement, the Trust will be funded and commence its work in all earnestness after necessary registration with the tax authorities and other operational formalities, currently under way, are completed," the statement said.

On June 12, an Air India plane, en route from Ahmedabad to London, crashed into a building soon after takeoff, killing 260 people, including 19 on the ground. Out of the 242 people who were on board the ill-fated Boeing 787-8 aircraft, only one passenger survived.