Kendrapara: After being stuck in Kendrapara district for more than a month, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s defunct helicopter Wednesday began a journey to Mumbai on road for repair, officials said.
Majhi reached Kendrapara in this chopper June 9, but the aircraft developed technical snags due to lightning strikes.
Engineers could not rectify the problems in the aircraft which was stranded on the Kendrapara college playground since then, Additional District Magistrate Rabindra Kumar Mallick said.
A team of aviation engineers removed the blades of the helicopter and later, with the help of an earthmover, lifted it on a trailer truck for its journey to Mumbai on road.
“The helicopter was manufactured by Germany’s Airbus company. Following safety protocols, we are shifting it on the road. After reaching Mumbai, the helicopter will be repaired,” said Kartik Chandra Dutta, the operations manager of Mumbai-based Heligo Charters Private Limited (HCPL).
The company is a service provider in India that utilises Airbus helicopters.
“It would take 10 days for us to take the helicopter to Mumbai from Kendrapara on the road, covering around 800 kilometres,” said an aviation engineer, who came from Mumbai to take the chopper there.
PTI
