IIT Kanpur becomes country’s first academic institute to offer helicopter ferry service in collaboration with Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd.

KANPUR: The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) will on June 1 become the country’s first academic institution to offer a helicopter ferry service. To be run by Pawan Hans from the institute’s runway, the facility would initially offer flights to Lucknow. It would be extremely handy for IIT guests, faculty, academicians, students, local industrialists and others willing to fly to Lucknow. The first flight would take off from the IIT-Kanpur runway on June 1 and the seven-seater helicopter will have a capacity to carry five passengers at a time.
Merchant’s Chamber of Uttar Pradesh, which is the driving force behind the launch of the helicopter service, has termed it as “an epic moment in the history of the IIT-K and the industrial city”.Anita Jha, Secretary General, Merchant’s Chamber of Uttar Pradesh, said: “IIT-K is launching this service in association with Pawan Hans Limited. Though initially the service would be between Kanpur and Lucknow, it would be later extended to New Delhi.” “Presently there is no air connectivity between Kanpur and Lucknow and the flight between Kanpur and Delhi is not reliable. Many a times this flight gets cancelled due to various reasons. The new service will end this uncertainty,” said Jha.