Ranchi: A rerun of last week’s Maoist landmine blast in Garhwa — albeit of a higher intensity and greater magnitude in terms of casualty and injury — can leave Jharkhand emergency challenged as the BSF has withdrawn its two advanced light helicopters (ALH) in the wake of an accident.
The state had bought its own ALH, or Dhruv, for Rs 35 crore in 2007 with police modernisation funds. On January 18 last year, the chopper was sent to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Bangalore facility for scheduled repair and maintenance. Some payment hiccups resulted in the chopper’s longer stay at HAL and it returned to Ranchi only earlier this month.
This lone Dhruv is currently the state’s surveillance and rescue fleet’s weak backbone. Reason: the only other aircraft at Jharkhand’s disposal — an Mi-17, a transport helicopter of Russian make managed and maintained by the Indian Air Force (IAF) — has difficulties in landing on tricky terrain compared to the smaller and robust Dhruv, say civil aviation experts.
Normally, it is on the CRPF’s requisition that the BSF provides its Dhruv services. A local BSF source said they managed and maintained six ALHs in Ranchi, Raipur and Agartala through as many base stations. One of the choppers in Raipur met with an accident on January 15. The mishap left the pilot with a broken backbone and damaged spinal cord, and prompted the ministry of home affairs to ground all such BSF choppers being used for anti-insurgency operations.
28/01/12 Amit Gupta/The Telegraph
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