Starting March 28, students from Mumbai University (MU) will be able to get a bird’s-eye view of the city by taking a Mumbai Darshan ride on Pawan Hans helicopters from their Kalina campus.
The brainchild of Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh, this initiative aims to attract and expose students to the joys of aviation technology, according to Dr. B.P. Sharma, chairman and managing director of Pawan Hans Limited.
“These rides are not meant for commercial benefits, but are meant solely for educational purposes, purely to provide students exposure to the aviation industry and to encourage them to towards it. Since this is purely an educational initiative, this service shall be available only for Mumbai University students,” Dr. Sharma said. Though, he was tight-lipped about the cost of the 10-minute joyride, he said it would be provided at a concessional rate, since “some part of the operational costs would be borne by the MU”.
Students would be able to fly on the 2+10-seater twin-engineer Dauphine helicopters from an existing helipad on the Kalina campus. The services would be operational only on weekends at present, and the frequency would be increased depending on the “availability and requirements”.
As of now, the Mumbai Darshan joyrides operated by Pawan Hans for the general public from its Juhu aerodrome have been suspended, awaiting clearances from the State government. “The weather is fine and we should be able to re-start the joyride services for all, provided we get clearances to use two helipads from the State: one at Mahalaxmi Race Course and one elsewhere,” Dr. Sharma said. The regular commercial chartered services of the Pawan Hans, however, continue to be operational.
This programme is being started on the sidelines of the newly launched bachelor’s course in aeronautics, which will be offered by the Garware Institute of Career Education and Development (GICED) in association with Pawan Hans.
Professor Anil Karnik, director of GICED, said: “We are involved only with the educational aspect of this course. Our basic objective is to help aircraft maintenance students get better job opportunities in the market after the three-year course; we have nothing to do with the logistics of the joyrides or the earnings from this service.”
The aviation students will have only theory lectures at the Kalina campus, while their practical sessions will be conducted at the Juhu Aerodrome.
Pawan Hans had been offering aircraft engineering courses from their helicopter training institute approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, but it had limited job opportunities. Now, students will be able to get a BSc degree, which would “make them better skilled in the market place and open up opportunities for them to even appear for exams like IAS, IPS or even do MBA courses”, according to Dr. Sharma.
