Rajasthan: A jinxed helicopter finally finds a buyer!

A state govt helicopter that miraculously escaped crash 10 years ago when CM Ashok Gehlot and several of his Cabinet colleagues were on board, finally got through hammer in an auction for an unexpected price.

The Agusta helicopter found no buyers on 12 occasions and it was lying unsold for the past 12 years. The helicopter crash-landed in a jungle on November 20, 2011, when Chief Minister Gehlot and his Cabinet colleagues were going to Nyangal village under Churu district to participate in a programme when the helicopter developed a snag and one of the blades got detached from the rotor top of the helicopter. The alert pilot managed to get the helicopter landed in a jungle near Chandkothi village.

This helicopter remained in the jungle for 15 days and was eventually flown to Jaipur after its spare parts arrived from Italy and then it was repaired. Since then, the aircraft earned notoriety as it has met with an accident and no VIP ever traveled on this helicopter fearing another crash because of the jinx. This aircraft met with an accident allegedly due to poor maintenance by the civil aviation department.

The desperate officials of the civil aviation department put the helicopter for sale along with two other aircrafts and surprisingly the helicopter which failed to get any buyer in the past 12 years was sold in the auction for Rs 7.55 crores in the auction. The helicopter which had a reserve price of Rs 2.50 crore attracted a bid of Rs 7.50 crore to the surprise of all.

Fresh tenders were invited for the flying machine along with spares and tools. The helicopter was procured during Vasundhara Raje’s first tenure as the CM in 2005. Ever since 2011, it was lying unused at the state hangar.

Originally, this twin-engine A109E power helicopter with an in-built bar-refrigerator was meant to ferry VVIPs and was procured from Italian firm AgustaWestland.

Over the past decade, this chopper became a huge headache for the Rajasthan government. Recently, the chief secretary, at a high-level meeting decided to re-auction it and directed officials to submit fresh proposals in this regard.

The Chief secretary reportedly discussed in detail with the officials the present status of the Agusta helicopter and the feasibility of future use. Finally, in the meeting, it was agreed to sell off the Agusta helicopter through auction and the civil aviation department was directed to invite tenders to sell the chopper at a plus-minus rate from the reserve price.

This Agusta helicopter was bought in the year 2005 by the state government for Rs 30 crores and it could barely serve for six years when it met with an accident. This aircraft had numerous engine problems and within two years after it was bought, it started giving trouble. But since it was covered under the warranty period by Westland Aviation, the manufacturer of this aircraft, changed its engine under the condition of the warranty. The aviation experts found that the engine got choked due to intense heat caused by the summer and also because of the desert dust. The company offered to buy back the aircraft and replace it with a new one, but the state government rejected this offer.

The civil aviation department on previous occasions had tried to dispose of the helicopter by offering the reserve price of this helicopter at Rs 4.50 crore, but as the helicopter had met with an accident and had a poor service and maintenance record it could not attract aany buyer under the hammer.

Then the experts suggested to reduce the reserve price and keep the reserve price tagged at Rs 2.50 crore and be offered for sale along with the B-200 and C-90 aircrafts

During the auction, the B-200 aircraft which had a reserve price of Rs nine crore was sold for Rs18.50 crore and the C 90 aircraft that had a reserve price of Rs 2.74 crores was sold for Rs7.60 crores.

The state has no helicopter of its own after the auction of the Augusta helicopter. The state government hires private company’s helicopters for its use in ferrying the Governor and the Chief Minister.

During the BJP rule in the state, a plan was mooted for buying aircraft and helicopters, but the plan fell through because of the paucity of finance.

The present Gehlot government had decided to buy a 10-seater plane, but the purchase is yet to be made .

The state government after studying various aspects and careful considerations, came out with a policy for the Civil Aviation to enable the department for smooth and proactive functioning. The policy has been formulated in consultation with the cross section of stakeholders in the aviation activities, pursuing aviation business in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan is the largest state, area wise in the country having 32 Helipad and 32 airstrips in total, in which 18 are State owned airstrips, four are AAI Airports, six are are Civil Enclaves and Defense Air bases and four are private airstrips. An airport is also coming up in Kota for which the state government has allotted land free of cost. The airport will be built by the Airport Authority of India. Under the Udaan scheme of the Union government, the state has offered its several airstrips for use for small aircraft, and soon Bhilwara, Jhunjhunu, Sikar Bikaner would be having commercial services.