With ageing fleet, government mulls modernisation of Pawan Hans Limited
With most of its helicopter fleet ageing, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is mulling modernisation of Pawan Hans Limited (PHL), a public sector enterprise that provides regional air connectivity as well as logistics services to state organisations, Parliament was informed on Monday.
“A proposal from PHL for its fleet modernisation is presently under consideration,” Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said in response to a question by Member of Parliament Sagarika Ghose in the Rajya Sabha.
“Pawan Hans currently has a fleet of 46 helicopters, including 41 owned and five leased helicopters. Out of the 41 owned helicopters, most of them are more than 30 years old,” he further revealed on being asked whether the government was mulling a plan to revive Pawan Hans with a funding of Rs 2,000 crore.
Starting off with two British Westland helicopters, it now operates a mix of several helicopters of varying capacity, including the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited manufactured Dhruv, French Dauphin – 365, US Bell - 206 / 407, Russian Mi – 172 and Eurocopter AS-350. It plans to become a 100-helicopter company by 2027.
Headquartered in Noida, the company was founded in October 1985 and commenced operations on November 1 in the same year. It is the country’s sole government-owned helicopter service provider and functions under the administrative control of MoCA.
Besides connecting remote and hilly regions in north, north-east and island territories, PHL also provides off-shore services to the Oil and Natural Gas Commission for its oil rigs at sea, providing support for disaster management operations, oil and gas pipeline surveillance, medical evacuation and washing the insulators of high-tension wires under live current for the power grip. It has also deployed six helicopters for law and order duties in naxal-affected areas.
PHL also introduced seaplane services first time in India as a pilot project in Andaman and Nicobar Islands with the Cessna 208A amphibian plane, with more destinations in other parts of the country in the pipeline.
