SCINDIA: WANT TO MAKE HELICOPTER A VEHICLE FOR COMMON PEOPLE
DEHRADUN: Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday announced nine key decisions as part of the Centre’s new helicopter policy, under which dedicated hubs and corridors would be established to boost air connectivity, as he highlighted the plan to make “helicopter a vehicle for common people”.
“A momentous day for India as we set out to expand helicopter operations with the following 9 key decisions,” Scindia said at the third Helicopter Summit in Dehradun.
The nine key decisions part of the new policy include setting up of a dedicated helicopter-acceleration cell in the Civil Aviation Ministry to look at the helicopter industry’s issues; exemption to helicopter operators from landing charges or parking deposits; recruiting officers of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) to train helicopter industry stakeholders.
During the event, a booklet, titled Heli-Disha, was also launched during the event o help district collectors understand all rules and regulations regarding helicopter operations.
The government has also decided to build Heli-hubs in Mumbai, Guwahati, Delhi and HAL airport in Bengaluru. “We are going to start with three dedicated corridors for helicopters -Juhu-Pune-Juhu, Mahalakshmi race course-Pune-Mahalakshmi racecourse and GandhinagarAhmedabad-Gandhinagar,” Scindia said.
He added that the ministry has identified 10 cities and 82 routes to develop helicopter corridors across the country, starting with six between Juhu and Pune; Malakshmi Race Course and Pune; Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.