As part of the Centre’s helicopter subsidy scheme for the northeastern region, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has released Rs 798.95 crore to different states for the financial years between 2016 and 2024, officials said on Saturday.

The scheme was launched to boost connectivity to remote areas of the northeastern states including Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur, to meet emergency evacuation needs.

The scheme further aims to provide affordable passenger transport in the region, particularly for evacuation during natural calamities and urgent medical evacuation.

 The Centre bears 75 per cent of the total cost of operation after deducting passenger recovery or flat 20 per cent of actual operation cost, whichever is more, the officials said. They said that to restrict the subsidy, an annual ceiling of flying hours has been fixed for the helicopter services in these states.

According to the officials, about Rs 76.45 crore was released for the financial year 2015-16, Rs 86 crore in 2016-17, Rs 86 crore in 2017-18, Rs 90 crore in 2018-19, Rs 100 crore in 2019-20, Rs 72.50 crore in 2020-21, Rs 100 crore in 2021-22, Rs 100 crore in 2022-23, and Rs 88 crore in 2023-24.

The types of helicopters operating in the northeastern region include Dauphin, MI-172, Bell 412, and Bell 407, among other models. Each state has a fixed number of flying hours per annum sanctioned by the MHA: Tripura has 480 hours, Arunachal Pradesh 3,460 hours, Sikkim 1,200 hours, Meghalaya 720 hours, Nagaland 480 hours and Mizoram 960 hours.

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