As India aspires to be a major player in the aviation space by 2047, India should turn its focus on developing helicopters where the country is lagging. Though the nation made significant progress over the last two decades in the aviation sector with increased connectivity and a few greenfield airports starting operations, it fares abysmally low when it comes to helicopters, experts say.

For a country like India, the total number of helicopters is just 256, while the opportunity is quite huge when it comes to health, calamities, heli-tourism and passenger travel.

Addressing a panel on helicopters at Wings India 2024 here on Thursday, Wg Cdr Rajat Misra of Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI), called for a change in mindset with regard to helicopters.

“The present mindset is that this machine is to be only used by a section who can pay money for it. Lives are being lost (in accidents on highways) because we think that life is not worth it. That is why nobody is putting money into it. Nobody will put money into it until they get money,” he said.

The country could see helicopters coming in for the upcoming elections, but they will go after that. “We have to look for permanent solutions. We have to have a 5-10 year plans to develop the industry,” he said.

The country needs to develop infrastructure such as helipads and make it attractive so that more pilots take to helicopter piloting. “We need to push single-engine aircraft in a country,” he said,

RK Tyagi, former Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Pawan Hans Ltd, asked the top helicopter operators to join hands to identify the issues and give voice to them.

Shalini Nalwad, Chairperson of the International Critical Care Air Transfer Team Foundation (ICATT), said that the country’s economy sufferes a great deal because of the loss of lives in road accidents. “As many as 1.50 lakh people die. For a country of 1.30 billion, we hardly have any ambulance that is equipped to take up health emergencies,” she said.

She called for efforts to promote air ambulances in order to save lives.

M Rajendran, General Manager (Technical) of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, said that the per kilometre cost could well be brought down to just under $2, against the present level of $4-5 a kilometre. He also said that HAL is capable of handling the demand for helicopters.

Sanjeev Razdan, Chairman and Managing Director of Pawan Hans Ltd, felt that the helicopter segment needs to be given special focus as the country aspired to build a seamless connectivity network by 2047. “If it is our dream, we should focus on all modes of transportation. The responsibility to build such a network is on all the stakeholders. 

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