HYDERABAD: After waiting for more than two years, the State Government has finally acquired a new helicopter Augusta Westland-139 for VVIP visits and also for emergency operations.
The Rs 58 crore helicopter, which is manufactured by Italian and British aviation companies, was flown from Delhi to Hyderabad on November 5 and Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and other officials had the inaugural flight to Mahaboobnagar district today.
Capt Jagan Mohan Manthena, who was the member (technical) of the high-level committee which finalised the tenders, piloted the helicopter that can accomodate upto 17 people.
“The inaugural flight was excellent and the Chief Minister was apparently pleased with its performance,’’ a senior official of the Chief Minister’s Office told Express.
The chopper is a stateof- the-art, medium lift helicopter for which global tenders were called for in January 2006. Six top aviation firms collected the Request for Proposal (RFP) documents but only three -- HAL Bangalore, Augusta Westland and Eurocopter (France and UK) -- had submitted the documents.
After several negotiations, orders were placed with Augusta Westland-139 helicopter in March 2007, the official said.