Flying high!

HYDERABAD: After plush offices and sprawling bungalows, it’s a swank chopper that’s coming the two new chief ministers’ way. It is learnt that the Andhra Pradesh Aviation Corporation Limited (APACL), a government undertaking agency entrusted with the job of procuring new choppers, has already started work on this and is expected to fi nalise the deal in the next few weeks.
Both K Chandrasekhara Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu will be provided with these choppers for official trips within their respective states.
“We approached the Telangana chief minister’s office soon after KCR’s appointment on June 2 and discussed with them the need to purchase a new chopper for the CM. There are 10 districts in the newly formed state and is compulsory to buy one,” said a source from APACL, adding, “CMO officials said that they would soon hold a meeting with KCR and APACL authorities and discuss the matter.” This meeting, according to CMO sources, is likely to be convened post the completion of Telangana Assembly sessions. Ditto in the case of Andhra Pradesh chief minister , N Chandrababu Naidu, who is currently using a private chopper for his visits around AP. The APACL’s decision to procure new choppers comes post the destruction of the offi cial helicopter of the Andhra Pradesh Agusta Westland (AW-139 ) chopper (six-seated ) that was gutted in a major fire that broke out at the hangar at the old airport in Begumpet in December 2012. While the proposal has been in the pipeline for long, it had been kept pending by last CM of united A P, N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
“We planned to buy the new plane worth nearly Rs 70 crore. This was the money that the Insurance Company has paid when the AW-139 chopper was gutted. But the plan was shelved in the wake of the state bifurcation,” said another offi cial explaining how the procedure of buying a new chopper takes at least six to eight months. “Once the proposal is agreed upon by the CMs of both the states, we have to ask the companies to send in their quotations. Then a special committee will visit the company and conduct a trail run. Only after that the deal will be signed,” the senior APACL offi cial added.