Pawan Hans to buy 16 choppers by fiscal-end

State-owned Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL), which has issued global tenders to buy 16 helicopters, plans to complete the acquisition process before the end of current financial year.

"We will decide on the bids by the end of this month or early next month. We plan to close the process before this fiscal," PHHL CMD R K Tyagi told PTI in an interview here.

The tenders were issued by the company last month for acquisition of two heavy-lift choppers with a capacity of 20 or more passengers, seven copters with a passenger capacity of 11 to 13, two with 11 to 15 passenger capacity, two more with the same capacity but twin-engined and three air-conditioned single-engined copters to carry five-six passengers.

To a question on shortage of pilots, the PHHL chief said the public sector firm had signed a MoU with the Indian Air Force for induction of retired pilots. "We have already inducted 37 retired pilots from the IAF and the Army's air wing. This process will continue."

Observing that PHHL had started retrofitting its own helicopters and maintaining those of some state governments, Tyagi said the time-line for repairs and retrofit have been substantially reduced by indigenous efforts.

In this context, he said the PHHL had sent a helicopter to Europe for major works and it took nine months to get it back. The second chopper took six months. "Now we have brought it down ourselves to 45 days," he said.

Asked about PHHL's preparations for upcoming elections when political parties hire choppers for campaigning, Tyagi said, "We will have four to five helicopters dedicated for this purpose. We carry elite customers, mostly VVIPs."

Elections are a major revenue earning season for all helicopter companies.