Srinagar: Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia on Monday announced three new projects for enhancing the helicopter sector in the country which includes Project Akash, HEMS and fractional ownership. He also launched a new Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) under project ‘Sanjeevani’ and the service will start at AIIMS, Rishikesh. “Through the learnings from project ‘Sanjeevani,’ we will put in place a National Helicopter Medical Emergency plan in the days to come,” he added.

Addressing ‘4th Heli-India Summit 2022 – Helicopters for Last Mile Connectivity,’ organized by FICCI, jointly with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and Government of J&K, Scindia said that the government intends to expand medical outreach and access to trauma care services to a wider population across the country using helicopters.

Scindia also announced a project – ‘Akash’ to enhance the safety in helicopter operations and provide all-weather day and night access. The government has started to develop helicopter specific low level IFR routes using GAGAN under the project Akash. “This will greatly benefit the helicopters and small aircraft operations to non-IFR airfields and helipads,” he added.

The Minister highlighted that our scheduled operations by carriers are increasing in the country, and we also need to promote non-scheduled operators (NSOPs). “We have introduced a new concept of ‘fractional ownership’ in the country today,” he said and added that this will help in owning the flying time of an aircraft by a large pool of people rather than buying the plane.

Helicopters, he said, have a multifarious role by providing urban connectivity and the government has started providing helicopter connectivity between airports and cities at economical rates. Helicopters also have an important role in providing medical services along with disaster management.

Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that in the last one year, several initiatives have been taken including leasing of helicopters, HEMS, expanding the scope under Heli-Sewa and we are working on the concept of fractional ownership. “There is a great potential for helicopters in promoting tourism in the state. With the proliferation of helicopters, we will have a potential for OEMs to set-up manufacturing and MRO in India and the government is working in this direction,” he added.

Remi Maillard, Chairman, FICCI Civil Aviation Committee and President and MD, Airbus India, said that FICCI will work closely with the Civil Aviation Ministry to accelerate the implementation of various announcements by the government. “The civil helicopter market needs more than just policy push from the government and the role of industry is critical. We will support the government in developing the helicopter market in the country,” he stated. /BI/