This May, an operational Dauphin SA 365N would have saved the state an embarrassment. A hired substitute chopper — Agusta Westland AW 139 — got grounded in Rajgir before Union finance minister P. Chidambaram could fly back to Patna.

He had to make his way back to the state capital by road.

However, the 23-year-old Dauphin SA 365N, the state helicopter that used to fly the top brass, including governors, chief ministers, cabinet ministers and others, would be back in action from August.

The chopper had been sent for a mandatory biennial inspection in September 2012. Several parts, which needed to be replaced, have been imported from France and are awaiting custom clearance in Mumbai. The helicopter would start operating once the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) gives its nod.

Dipak Kumar Singh, director (operations)-cum-chief pilot, directorate of civil aviation, told The Telegraph: “According to norms, the parts of the chopper have to be procured from the same manufacturer. Since the helicopter was manufactured in France, the parts have to be imported from there. At present, the parts are awaiting customs and sales tax clearances at Mumbai. We expect these to reach Patna in a fortnight. After the defective parts are replaced with new ones, several test runs would be held. An application would then be sent to the DGCA for an airworthiness certificate. We expect the formalities to be completed by the end of this month.”

Captain Dipak said the hire-period of the AgustaWestland AW139 got over this week and it had gone back to New Delhi. “As the state owned chopper is expected to take a month to resume operations, we are in talks with Arrow Aviation to hire the same chopper for another month,” he said.

While the Dauphin SA 365N was grounded, the civil aviation department had hired an AgustaWestland AW139 manufactured by AgustaWestland, the Anglo-Italian helicopter company owned by Italy’s Finmeccanica. The eight+2-seater chopper was hired from New Delhi-based Arrow Aviation.

On May 11, the Union finance minister P. Chidambaram got grounded in Rajgir as the AgustaWestland chopper in which he had reached Rajgir from Patna refused to take off on its way back owing to discharged battery. Chidambaram waited for around 10 minutes and then took the road with chief minister Nitish Kumar.

The Dauphin SA 365N is nearing its shelf life, around 25 to 30 years but owing to very less flying hours — 2,500 since the time of purchase, the civil aviation department has no immediate plans of procuring any new chopper.

The state government also owns three small aircraft — King Air C-90 A/B, King Air C-90 and Dutches 76. While the first two are 7+2- and 6+2-seater respectively, the third is a 2+2-seater. However, only the first is functional.

Apart from Gaya, Purnea and Bhagalpur, VIPs have to take a chopper if they choose an aerial route to reach their destinations, as other places in the state don’t have the infrastructure for aircraft landing. In 1989, the state government bought two Dauphin SA 365N at a combined cost of Rs 7 crore. One of the helicopters crashed in Munger in February 2004.