Choppers will zip past in sky soon

Chopper-hopping corporate honchos and business tycoons in Mumbai will now have a dedicated flight corridor for their flying machines. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) will notify separate helicopter corridors for Mumbai and Delhi airports within a week.

The directorate’s decision, which was announced on Thursday, will help ease aerial congestion at both the airports with high density chopper operations. In the absence of a separate flight path, choppers presently use the same corridor used by commercial airlines. They spend a lot of time hovering in the air before being allowed to land.

“We will issue a notification for a dedicated chopper corridor at Delhi and Mumbai airports within a week,” said Nasim Zaidi, director-general of civil aviation.

Currently, there are close to 10 helipads in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. On an average, 80 choppers take off from, and land on, the helipads on a daily basis.

An air traffic control (ATC) official said choppers have to cross the Mumbai airport region at Juhu airport after they take off and want to land. “However, since this space is used by scheduled airline flights, the choppers have to do a go-around in the skies,” he said.

Airline flights land and take off every two minutes at the Mumbai
airport. This results in choppers having to hover in the air for long durations. “It results in criminal wastage of time, fuel and money,” the official added.

The proposal for a corridor for helicopters in Mumbai has been pending with the civil aviation ministry since 2003. Matters got complicated when both the runways at the Mumbai airport were made operational in January 2006. It was only in July last year that the DGCA conducted trials with chopper pilots on the new dedicated route.