Rajendra Joshi
As the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections in the country begins, the battle over political parties has now reached the sky. Political parties prefer to hire private helicopters to hold more meetings to cover the ground for election campaign. However, helicopter leasing companies in India have boarded housefulls as political parties make advance bookings of helicopters months before the election trumpets. Due to this advance demand, there has been an increase of about 20 percent in the rent of helicopters this year, and the helicopters are not available even after paying more money.
The four major players in the helicopter industry in India are 'Pawan Hans', 'Global Spectra', 'Heligo Charters' and 'Heritage Aviation'. The Indian helicopter industry has a total of 254 helicopters in the country compared to 15,000 helicopters in the US. 190 of these helicopters are owned by the Defense Forces, while the remaining 60 to 70 helicopters are owned by private industries. For these helicopters service, six months ago the industry was charging a rate of 14 and 24 dollars per minute for helicopters with single and double cylinder engines respectively. As soon as the Lok Sabha elections are looming in the country, these rates are now being charged as high as 18 and 32 dollars (an average of Rs. 1,500 and 2,700) respectively in this industry.
In India, when there are no elections, the total utilization of these helicopters is about 40 hours per month, while it is reserved for 80 to 90 hours per month during election periods. In this reservation, both the ruling parties BJP and Congress are leading. A few months ago, keeping in mind the need for elections, these two parties reserved helicopters. As a result, it is now impossible for regional parties in the country to get helicopters. This is why West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Party chief Mamata Banerjee filed a complaint.
In the reservation of helicopters, the Bharatiya Janata Party was the first to make a reservation and put other parties in a dilemma. Now the march of political parties has turned towards chartered planes. There rates are stable. But, as the competition has started, the rates of chartered flights can also go up. Indian airlines have hiked their air fares by 15 to 20 percent as a result of Tata Udyog Group's expansion in India. If political parties start making their reservations in this airline service tomorrow, it may also affect the fare hike.
