Pawan Hans grounding stalls China border roads

Tawang: The grounding of helicopter operator Pawan Hans’ fleet after two shocking accidents in a fortnight near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh has claimed another casualty: Border Roads Organisation’s (BRO’s) strategic road building programme along the Sino-Indian border. With Pawan Hans’ helicopters no longer available to ferry bulldozers and materials to road building sites in remote areas, this crucial programme is experiencing further delay.
On April 19, a Pawan Hans Mi-172 helicopter had crashed near Tawang, killing 17 passengers as well as crew members and grievously injuring five more. On April 30, another Pawan Hans AS350 B3 helicopter crashed near Sela Pass, killing Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others on board. Since then, Pawan Hans has suspended operations in the North-East region.
These grounded helicopters have been central to BRO’s success in by-and-large meeting tough road building schedules. Building sequentially, or starting from one end of a proposed road and working steadily to the other end, is a slow process. Instead, BRO divides roads into segments, selecting multiple ‘attack points’ to which road building materials are heli-lifted. Work then proceeds simultaneously from each attack point.
Among the first to be affected is the crucial road being built from Thingbu towards the 18,000-foot Tulung La Pass on the border, so far just a mule track on which the Chinese infiltrated in 1961 to outflank Indian troops ensconced on the mighty Sela Pass. Since BRO was using a Pawan Hans Mi-172 helicopter to carry a dismantled bulldozer to Thingbu, building has been stalled until it flies again. The Indian Air Force has already expressed its inability to support the BRO road building, since its helicopters are fully committed in provisioning the army’s remote border outposts.
08/05/11 Ajai Shukla/Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2011