Minister of Civil Aviation announces new helicopter policy

Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia has announced a new helicopter policy under which dedicated hubs and corridors will be set up, and landing charges and parking deposits removed to promote commercial operations.

Under the new policy, the government is going to place together a committed helicopter-acceleration cell in the civil aviation ministry that will study the helicopter industry's problems, the minister stated.

Scindia, during his speech at the 3rd Helicopter Summit, organised by industry body FICCI in Dehradun said that ten steps are going to be part of this new helicopter policy. It is going to be a resource that can be used to promote their growth.

The minister said that as per the new policy, there will be no landing charges or parking deposits for heliports or helicopter firms from now onward.

Officers of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Air Traffic Control (ATC) will engage with the helicopter industry shareholders so that sufficient training is provided to all individuals concerning helicopter problems, the minister noted.

An advisory group has been established in the civil aviation ministry under the new policy to talk about the issues of the industry.

Heli-Disha, a booklet that was issued on Friday in Dehradun, would be given to every collector of every district of the nation, he said.

The booklet included all regulations and matters associated with helicopter size, weight, operations, etc. It would generate awareness regarding it in the district administrations across the nation, he added.

As per the new policy, a centralised Heli-Seva portal will be promoted to a level so that all approvals for a helicopter flight could be awarded online, the minister stated.

He said that the government would create four Heli-hubs to start with – one at Guwahati, second at Juhu in Mumbai, third at HAL airport in Bengaluru and fourth at HAL airport in Bengaluru.

The minister said that 10 cities and 82 routes have been recognised to improve helicopter corridors.

They are going to commence with three dedicated corridors for helicopters – Mahalakshmi race course-Pune-Mahalakshmi racecourse and Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar and Juhu-Pune-Juhu.

He said that the government selected three expressways – Ambala-Kotputli expressway, Delhi-Mumbai expressway and Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar expressway – where the heliports would be set up along the expressway so that evacuation of accident victims can be done quickly.

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