Patiala, October 19
The Punjab Government, which prefers Pawan Hans Helicopter on lease for Rs 20 lakh per month to its own King Air C-90 air craft has let the aircraft grounded at Delhi for want of a pilot.
The aircraft has been grounded in Delhi nearly for one month after its pilot, Capt R.P. Singh, resigned his job. Since then the Punjab Government has appointed neither a new pilot to fly its VIP aircraft nor taken one on deputation for the job. The pilot reportedly had resigned shortly before he was told to fly state Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to Jammu where the latter was to take part in Congress election campaign.
Like his predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh also prefers to fly by Pawan Hans helicopter though it costs the State Rs 30 lakh per month besides a Rs 35,000 per hour of flying time.
High-level Aviation Department sources said the King Air was not preferred by the Chief Minister perhaps due to his unavailability. The Pawan Hans company on the other hand keeps a helicopter spare for use on demand if the helicopter on lease with the Punjab Government developed a snag. They said the other reason was that a helicopter offered better mobility unlike an aircraft which could land only where proper runways existed.
Besides this, there have been problems in the maintaining of King Air aircraft for which the government cannot procure spares needed quickly forcing its grounding for months together. Sources said when the aircraft was put to certificate of air-worthiness test in February this year some parts had to be imported. They said the parts reached only by the end of April.
The sources said when the pilot took it out for a test flight on April 27-28 he reported a snag saying the radar was not mapping. As this was the third snag reported relating to the same equipment the radar had to be sent to Germany to test all its functions. The sources said the test report was received in July saying that the radar was in order.
After flying for a few months following this test, the aircraft now is grounded in Delhi after the pilot’s resignation.
The sources said while the age of the aircraft was against it as its inspection frequency changed from yearly to six monthly ones when a aircraft passed the 20-year-old limit, the aircraft with present value pegged at Rs 25 crore could easily be used more frequently to save on the cost of hiring a private helicopter for VIPs sources said the aircraft could be used for transporting VIPs to all important cities.
