No rent or lease, DGCA gives 30 acres free to PHHS

Pune Even as the Tawang crash has shown Pawan Hans in bad light, its plans to start a helicopter training academy along with a Maintenance Repair Operations (MRO) unit and heliport at Hadapsar Gliding Centre in Pune is getting mired in controversy.
A Memorandum of Understanding between PHHL and DGCA signed on May 17, 2010 agrees DGCA will hand over land to PHHL on a no rent/lease basis. The MoU says the project cost, Rs 14.6 crore, for setting up the facilities would be from budgetary support provided to DGCA by the Ministry of Civil Aviation for 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal.
Clause 3 (b) of the MoU, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, states; ‘DGCA will allocate a portion of the land and existing infrastructure facilities at Hadapsar Gliding Centre, Pune to PHHL as required for development of helicopter activities as mentioned in (a) above on no rental/ lease basis.’ Clause (a) throws light on various operations PHHS would conduct from the location and has no mention of the development of the gliding centre, which was once on the priority list of the DGCA.
Bharat Bhushan, Director General Civil Aviation, said, “It was a considerate decision we took in the court to put an end to minute things that were causing delay. It was a conscious decision and the further terms would be decided in due course. PHHL is a 100 per cent government-owned company.”
He refused to comment on ‘further terms’ or the time when they would be decided.
Bharat Bhushan had visited the Gliding Cente on March 16, 2011, coinciding with a cockpit resource management and safety seminar by the PHHL. It was the visit of a DG after a gap of over six years. Before that, R P Sahi, Joint Director General, DGCA, had paid a visit in 2008 along with Pawan Hans Chairman and Managing Director RK Tyagi, who had joined PHHL as consultant after his retirement in October, 2010.
24/04/11 Pranav Kulkarni/Express India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Apr 2011