Jagson to fly Himachal VVIPs

A senior government official said Jagson Airlines had quoted the lowest rates — Rs 1.32 lakh per hour flying with no additional retention charges. MESCO airlines,which had been providing its helicopter services for the last 13 years,was the highest bidder at 1.62 lakh per hour. The company lost the deal to Jagson Airlines.

“There was another company that submitted its bid,but after the deadline had passed. Thus,only two bidders were considered,” said an official of the general administration department.

Jagson Airlines chairman Jagdish Gupta confirmed that the company had replaced MESCO and that it would now run its helicopter service for the state government. “We are the first private airlines company in India to have been given licence and since then we have an unblemished record. Our rates were lowest and flying record extremely good. It is a great opportunity to serve Himachal Pradesh,” he added.

The company also plans to introduce daily Delhi-Shimla and Delhi-Kullu flights by acquiring a new 80-seater jet-engine plane. Himachal used to earlier rely on the Indian Air Force for emergency helicopter services,but in the mid-nineties,the government decided to acquire a MESCO helicopter on ‘wet-lease’. The government recently decided to cut down expenditure on flying and chose to obtain a small six-seater helicopter. The experiment did not click as a helicopter has become a necessity for the government in view of the tough terrains and frequent natural disasters.

Jagson,which has a joint venture in the Shimla-Jakhu ropeway project,however,has not been so lucky in case of its Rs 18 crore tourism project . After it had raised a multi-storey structure for the ropeway,the government and the local municipal corporation have raised serious objections and stalled the work on the project,which was otherwise slated to be operational about one- and-a-half years ago.

“Helicopter lease is a different issue. The two cannot be equivocated on the same footing,” said a town and country planning official.