Rs 72-cr Airbus helicopter for Maharashtra CM, governor arrives

It will be completed in the next three weeks. The helicopter will be used for winching, anti-Maoist operations and disaster management, besides transporting VVIPs. It can be converted into an air ambulance if need be,' said an official from the aviation wing of the state government. Two years back, the state cabinet decided to buy two helicopters for the transport of VVIPs and for other purposes like winching and anti-Maoist operations. Along with the Airbus, the government was planning to purchase a Sikorsky S76-D by US firm Lockheed Martin at a cost of more than Rs 120 crore. The helicopter was meant to be exclusively for VVIPs including the governor, chief minister, and senior ministers. The state government had entered into a deal with the firm, but later cancelled it after deviations in the agreement clauses. In the wake of scrapping the deal for the Sikorsky S76-D, the state government will reissue a tender for a VVIP chopper. The decision to procure two helicopters at the cost of Rs 200 crore, was taken in September 2017, after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's Sikorsky S76 chopper crash-landed in Nilanga in May 2017. Fadnavis narrowly escaped another accident in Alibaug on July 07, 2017, when the chopper took off before he could get in. Following the incident, the state government suspended chopper operations for VVIPs during the monsoon. The CM and other VVIPs currently either use helicopters hired from empanelled agencies or the Cessna Citation 560XLS aircraft owned by the government. DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: Hindustan Timeshttp://www.feedbooks.com/user/5577326/profile

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