Giving wings to civil helicopter operations

The policy for promotion of helicopter operations framed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation has opened the sky for the State Governments to promote civil helicopter operations. The Ministry has also put in place a comprehensive guideline for the state government to effectively support safe civil operations. For the northeast region with low density of roads and railways, the policy is expected to give wings to safe and smooth civil helicopter service to provide better connectivity to remote places. The Ministry launching a portal called Heli Sewa as a centralised single window solution to facilitate all permissions for helicopter operations is a step towards building the ecosystem for implementing the policy. The portal has been created to provide seamless single-window digital access to the operator to share information and request permission for helipad operation. To facilitate ease of doing business in the sector, the policy exempts helicopter operators from landing charges and the trouble of depositing parking fees. The government proposes to build heli-hubs in Guwahati, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Helicopter operators are required to submit a request for operations into a particular helicopter landing site and indicate the broad requirements of a helipad on a particular date and period.The portal also facilitates district administration to grant or deny permission. The guidelines state that due to data quality of helipads stored in the portal, extensive information about the helipads will be easily accessible with the framework of National Disaster Management Plan. This provision has great significance for the northeast region, being a disaster-prone zone but inaccessibility often posing hurdles in quick rescue and relief operations. Aerial rescue and relief operations carried out during floods in the Indian Air Force demonstrate the importance of helicopter services in disaster operations in the region. Districts, as part of the State Disaster Management Plan, will populate the helipad directory in the portal through a standardised interface ensuring quality and depth of information on helipads, states Heli Disha, the booklet released by the Ministry on administrative guidance for helicopter operations. The basic premise of the policy to bring more flexibility in civil helicopter operations as explained in the booklet is that "heliports are synonymous to airports which are licensed or approved areas for landing and take-offs with passenger terminal areas. However, due to the versatility of helicopters to land and operate from any open area unfettered by runways makes it implicit that limiting helicopter operations to heliports is both impractical and unviable." India has a fleet of 250 civil registered helicopters of which non-scheduled operations category accounts for 181, government and public sector undertakings 26 and private categories accounting for the rest. The booklet clarifies that though the proposed landing area is contained within a public area or establishment, a No Objection Certificate of the government-appointed custodian of that establishment as being the owner would be necessitated. Similarly, if the helicopter landing area is contained within a private property, the consent of the owner of that land would be required and only intimation needs to be provided to the district administration about the planned helicopter operation. "This implies a tacit concurrence unless otherwise refused," states the guideline which has brought more clarity for helicopter operators and charters on use of private properties as helipad and the role of district administration in the permission process. While the policy makes permission process simpler and easier, cordon and crowd control will continue to be challenging task for district administration and will remain a critical factor for granting or denying permissions, particularly in those areas with inadequate strength of police force. The booklet highlights the importance of cordon and crowd control by stating that helicopter main rotor blades when being started up or during shut down can droop dangerously low and can hit a person of even 4 ft height when entering the main rotor disc area. Therefore, cordoning around 80-100 meters from the helicopter landing spot is a must to prevent people or animal from coming to fatal contact with the rotor blades. Imparting training and roping in village defence personnel and helicopter operators paying for incentive in lieu of their services in cordoning and crowd controlling can help district administration and district police to overcome the problem of shortage of required manpower for deployment to facilitate civil helicopter operations to cover more remote areas. While challenges of civil helicopter operations will continue to face the challenges from safety aspects, the ecosystem crated by the ministry to promote helicopter operations has also brought huge opportunities to boost tourism and expanding medical services for critical care in the northeast region. Apart from flexibility in permit regime, actual cost of operations and demand will be critical factors for helicopter operators to evince interest. States leveraging the policy can change the trajectory of the growth of civil helicopter operations in the region.