Pawan Hans may soon fly in West Bengal

West Bengal government today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pawan Hans Limited for starting chopper services for developing infrastructure in the tourism, health care, industry sectors and for disaster management.
"This MoU will go a long way in creating basic infrastructure to improve connectivity between various towns of West Bengal," Pawan Hans chairman and managing director Anil Srivastava said after signing the agreement.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said since the state has diverse geographical features which include the hills of Darjeeling and the islands of the Sundarbans, air connectivity was important not only for tourism and industry but also for rescue operations during disasters.

"To connect towns like Balurghat, Malda, Siliguri and Cooch Behar, we can give subsidy in the first year if the seats are not filled," she said.
Places like Diamond Harbour, Sundarbans, Kharagpur, Raichak, Haldia, Durgapur, Digha, Bolpur, need better connectivity for developing tourism and industry, Banerjee said.
Pawan Hans has planned three kinds of services -- helicopter, fixed wing aircraft services and a sea plane which can land both in water and on an airstrip.

Srivastava said a lot of airstrips in the state which were not utilised to their full potential can be operationalised after the feasibility studies are done.

"There are airports which were once functional and are now defunct like Cooch Behar. Connectivity can be provided," Srivastava said.
In the last few months, the state government has expressed interest in starting helicopter services between Kolkata and other towns of the state.