Existing fleet idling, MHA goes for more choppers

New Delhi, Feb 5: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is purchasing more helicopters from Russia to support its anti-naxal operations even as its existing fleet is found to be gravely underutilized owing to lack of expertise to operate and maintain the machines.

The Ministry has fleets of six Mi-17 helicopters and six indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruvs. To add to this it has asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to buy an additional six Mi-17 V5 helicopters from Russia, with which the latter is negotiating a follow on order of 59 helicopters.

Officials at the Home Ministry said the procurement was necessitated as the indigenous helicopters have become old and have a poor serviceability record. “The 2001-vintage home built Dhruvshave been grounded for checks following a crash in January. Owing to their low serviceability we have decided to purchase an additional Mi-17 V5 helicopters from Russia,” sources added.

“We will also be suggesting to HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd) to replace the helicopters with the new variants,” the sources added.

With the government yet to decide on launching an air offensive against the naxals, the ministry intends to use these machines primarily for ferrying troops and material. Presently, the IAF has deployed four Mi-17 helicopters for this purpose.

The Dhruv helicopters maintained by the Border Security Force (BSF) have been grounded for checks after one of them crashed in January. The BSF is also maintaining the Mi-17 fleet of the Ministry procured in 2003.

In a scathing Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report in September 2011, it was revealed that the MHA purchased six Russian Mi-17 helicopters at a cost of Rs. 129.29 in 2003. However, as it lacked expertise to operate these machines, the Home Ministry requested the IAF to take custody of these helicopters in March 2004. Between July 2004 and March 2005, the helicopters were returned to the BSF and since then were positioned at Safdarjung Airport, instead of being optimally utilized for meeting its operational requirement in North-East and Jammu and Kashmir areas.

Moreover, the air wing of BSF for which the choppers were brought continued to hire helicopters for airlifting and dropping rations to its troops in Jammu and Kashmir and north-east area. Also it had to cough up a sum of Rs. 9.32 crore as license fee and conservancy charges for parking of the helicopters to Safdarjung Airport. Despite government’s sanction of funds for construction of hangars and infrastructure at five places - Srinagar, Jammu, Bhuj, Assam and Tripura - the construction of hangars had not even commenced as of December 2010.