New Delhi, June 24: Six helicopters purchased for the BSF last year might finally take off for their destinations by the year-end.
In a major expansion plan for the BSF’s air wing, the Union home ministry had bought six Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters to be deployed in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.
The BSF, the first force to have medium-lift helicopters, said the choppers would be deployed for sorties later this year.
As of now, the aircraft are attached with the Indian Air Force base at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh where they are being tested for snags.
“The helicopters came with a guarantee that all repairs within 300 flying hours or a year would be taken care of,” said a government official, pointing out that if the BSF tried putting the Mi-17 helicopters on operational duties immediately, they would not have been able to fly the helicopters as long as required.
“We could have done a maximum of 20-25 hours a month,” he said, adding that the BSF would have ended up paying for manufacturing defects after the expiry of the guarantee period even though the choppers had flown just 200 hours. Now, the helicopters will complete 300 flying hours by September.
“Besides, the home ministry did not have any place to park the helicopters and was in discussion with the defence ministry to allocate space to the BSF helicopters at the air force bases,” said additional director general, BSF, A.K. Mitra.
Two helicopters have already been earmarked for the Northeast, one each for Guwahati and Agartala, two for Kashmir, one for Jammu and the sixth for Rajasthan where the force is involved in protecting the borders of the desert state.
The force’s air wing, which had only two ageing Avros till a few years ago, has asked the IAF to depute around two dozen pilots to fly the new helicopters. The air force has already deputed 10 pilots. “We have never had anyone in the force to fly helicopters,” a BSF officer said, explaining that it was for this reason that the BSF had outsourced flying and maintenance of its two choppers, a Chetak and Cheetah.
