Dhruv choppers at an air show in Delhi

Bangalore, Oct. 4: The take-off of the country’s first indigenous civil aircraft has been slow as the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) tries to figure out the certification process.

So far, the rulebooks have been targeted only at foreign-made helicopters, already certified for use by their home country. The DGCA only needs to check if they are fit to fly in India and what kind of maintenance back-up they have.

“The DGCA is being extremely cautious, but they need to do things quickly,” said C.D. Upadhyay, the chief test pilot for rotary wing aircraft at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which has designed the machine — a variant of the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv.

“This has been a learning experience for both HAL and the DGCA. Though the process needs to be quickened, no chances can be taken as it will carry passengers,” Upadhyay added.

Enquiries for the aircraft have been piling up from other countries and from state governments in India. But so far, only two — sold to ONGC — have been certified.

Although the basic design of the helicopter remains the same, modifications are made depending on the use to which it will be put. ONGC is using one to ferry VIPs and the other to fly men to offshore wells. The Jharkhand government, which has ordered two, wants to use them for police operations. An ambulance version is also on the way because the National Disaster Management Force being set up by the Centre is expected to order quite a few — the ONGC aircraft were used in flood relief operations in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka and proved effective.

Each time, the DGCA has to start the certification from scratch because it has no standard rules to fall back on. The standardisation will take a while, officials said. Till then, certification is expected to be slow as the DGCA looks closely at its own books and raises safety and maintenance questions.

“There are issues like maintenance, repair and overhaul of these choppers. There are several points like whether the manufacturer can maintain the aircraft and who will clear the service personnel and judge them to be competent to maintain the ALH,” Upadhyay said.

But even DGCA officials privately admit the need to speed up.

Already, the delay in framing the rules has started to hurt HAL. The Jharkhand government almost cancelled its order. “As these two were meant for the use of the police, HAL had to answer a different set of questions to get it certified from DGCA,” Upadhyay said.

“Both the choppers meant for Jharkhand are being fitted with air-conditioning. They will be delivered by mid-October,” said a HAL official, who did not want to be named.

The two ONGC choppers — the only ones so far to have been certified — are also at the HAL Helicopter Division in Bangalore for modifications.

Bolivia has ordered two choppers. There are also enquiries from Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, Venezuela, the Shell oil company and Chile.

For HAL to be able to deliver, the DGCA will have to act faster.