State-owned helicopter operator Pawan Hans will now have two new choppers in its fleet, which will arrive by early August. Senior officials from Pawan Hans have confirmed to The Asian Age that the company will soon receive two Mi 172 medium-lift helicopters, which will take the total fleet up to 47 choppers. Leading chopper-manufacturing company, Kazan, manufactures the Russian-made Mi series of helicopters. The choppers cost around $10 million (`50 crore) each as per the present market rate.
The two helicopters will arrive by air cargo at the Mumbai international airport in a transport or a cargo aircraft. “The choppers will arrive in a dismantled arrangement with all the spare parts and components. The rotors, main body, fuselage and engine will be separately packaged and will be assembled by our engineers and technicians from Kazan once the they reach our base in Mumbai,” said a senior Pawan Hans official from Mumbai.
Another official from New Delhi said that they are yet to decide on the place to base the helicopters, which will most probably be the Northeast, where the company has transport and passengers services for the villagers in the inaccessible mountainous terrain.
“We will have a meeting to decide on their deployment after identifying the areas where we need additional fleet,” said the official. Pawan Hans spokesperson Milind Bhargav confirmed the development, but refused to give further details. A senior helicopter pilot privy to the developments, however, said that the company is replacing the two choppers that it lost in a spate of accidents that took place last year.