Pawan Hans plans to soar in UP skies

Pawan Hans Helicopters has plans to soar in skies overlooking spots of pilgrimage and religious interests in Uttar Pradesh.

The company has already launched its daily helicopter service between New Delhi and the temple town of Vrindavan (Mathura district) in Western UP.

Next in line is the Buddhist Circuit spread over Eastern UP. Pawan Hans had recently conducted a detailed study regarding helicopter clientele potential for connecting Buddhist Circuit with Varanasi.

It plans to extend helicopter services on these destinations in near future, which could be as early as by the end of December 2012.

“We are planning to launch the helicopter service between Varanasi and select spots in the Buddhist Circuit, which attracts a large number of domestic and foreign backpackers, who have good paying capacity,” a Pawan Hans spokesperson told Business Standard overphone.

Meanwhile, the helicopter connectivity on the new sector of New Delhi-Vrindavan has been launched in association with UP tourism. The company has deployed 6/5 seater Bell helicopter and the one-hour flight costs a passenger Rs 3,900. The return fare is Rs 7,000.

The inaugural flight was flagged off at Mathura by local Member of Parliament and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) general secretary Jayant Chaudhary, who is the son of union civil aviation minister and RLD president Ajit Singh.

A similar copter will be deployed for the Buddhist Circuit. Pawan Hans functions under the union civil aviation ministry and provides air connectivity across India through regular passenger/charter services and also meets the requirements of offshore support services.

The company has a fleet of over 50 helicopters with clientele from diversified sectors as public sector undertakings (PSU), state governments, Exploration & Production (E&P) sector, anti-Naxalite operations etc. Pawan Hans also provides Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support for helicopters.

It operates helicopter services to pilgrimages like Vaishno Devi (Jammu & Kashmir), Kedarnath, Amarnath and Badrinath (all in Uttarakhand).