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| Govt planning to add new aircraft in its fleet | | |
Jammu, March 28,
The state government has started preliminary exercise to add new aircraft in its fleet following a report from the state’s civil Aviation authorities suggesting immediate replacement of the exisiting eight-seater aircraft .
Official sources said here today that the civil Aviation authorities had informed the Government that the existing aircraft had outlived its utility and since the small plane usually had VIPs on board new model of the aircraft was needed.
At present the state Government has one aircraft, and two helicopters. One helicopter had crashed in 2003 killing the pilot, Group captain J.S.Kahlon near Ganderbal in Srinagar.
The crash was caused due to bad weather and poor visibility. It may be mentioned that during the National Conference rule, between 1996 and 2002, the Government had carried out a survey which had revealed that the state required between eight and nine helicopters which could be pressed into services during emergencies, especially during the weather-related disasters. The helicopters could also be pressed for evacuating those wounded in militancy related violence in remote areas and in the tourism sector. But paucity of funds had come in the way of purchasing more helicopters.
In 2005-2006 the Government had increased the annual budget allocations for the civil aviation sector to Rs.14.05 crores against Rs.60 lakhs in 2004-2005. The hike had been approved as the Government wanted to replace the crashed aircraft by a new small plane.
Official sources said that a committee, headed by Chief Secretary, Mr C.Phunsog, has been constituted for examining the need for replacing the existing eight-seater aircraft by some latest model under” buy back scheme.” The committee recommendations will be submitted to the cabinet for approval.
The Government, official sources said, is already aware of the problems it was confronted with when the Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained blocked by snow and landslides and the Air Force authorities are requested to lift the stranded passengers. Between February and March the Air Force carried numerous sorties in a day for lifting stranded passengers. The Government would wish to have a fleet of aircrafts and helicopters for meeting these emergencies and the same machines could be utilized for carrying pilgrims to Mata Vaishnov Devi shrine and Amarnath cave.
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