A different kind of fly-over

Mumbai: Reliance Industries, the Tata Group, the Aditya Birla Group, the Essar Group, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) are all planning to set up helipads on their office rooftop.
Sources from Tata Group said helipad would save lot of time for decision-makers as they can skip heavy city traffic. The cost of building a helipad on the rooftop is anywhere between Rs 3 crore and Rs 3.5 crore.
'With increased interest emerging from Indian clients, international helipad makers are setting up shop in India,' government sources said.
Since the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) follows ICAO guidelines, companies and hospitals were expected to get a green signal for their helipads. There was new interest from hospitals to build elevated helipads for medical evacuation, they added.
Global helipad makers pointed out that India was huge market as there were very few helipads and it would grow such as the US and Europe.
In the next five years, the country will have about 1,000 helicopters, apart from those used by the armed forces, according to various estimates prepared by international helicopter manufacturing companies. At present, the country has about 200 civilian helicopters.
30/05/07 PR Sanjai/Business Standard

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Categories: General Aviation May 2007, New May 2007