A different kind of fly-over

With logjams reducing city traffic to a crawl, businessmen have hit upon a new idea to compress commute time: build helipads on top of buildings that can support it.

Reliance Industries, the Tata Group, the Aditya Birla Group, the Essar Group, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) are all planning to set up helipads on their office rooftop.

"Apart from business conglomerates, almost all hospitals and hotels are planning to set up helipad on rooftop. Top business magnates and high networth individuals of the country are even planning helipads on the top of their flats," industry sources said.

Currently, Essar Group's Essar House has a helipad on the rooftop, which is underutilised, while Tata has the same on its property at Willington Mews at Colaba in South Mumbai, which is yet to get inspected by the government authorities.

Sources from Tata Group said helipad would save lot of time for decision-makers as they can skip heavy city traffic. "Travel to airport by road is nightmare. A journey to the south of Mumbai from airport will take at least 2 to 3 hours due to congestion on roads.

Helipad is an answer if your buildings are capable of having it," they added. The cost of building a helipad on the rooftop is anywhere between Rs 3 crore and Rs 3.5 crore.

"With increased interest emerging from Indian clients, international helipad makers are setting up shop in India. These companies are following the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) guidelines for helipads including lighting, fire-fighting and necessary load structures," government sources said.

Since the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) follows ICAO guidelines, companies and hospitals were expected to get a green signal for their helipads. There was new interest from hospitals to build elevated helipads for medical evacuation, they added.

Global helipad makers pointed out that India was huge market as there were very few helipads and it would grow such as the US and Europe. "We are the only helipad makers using composite materials such as polyester, resin, plastic and fire retardant powder. Our modular helipads will reduce the vibrations to building and it is light weight, that is about one-tenth of the weight of concrete. It also meets requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)," claims Pierre Coffrant, regional manager of United Aeronautical Services, which the exclusive marketing agent of French helipad maker Helistop.

Coffrant pointed out that Indian market was huge and he was getting positive feedback from Indian corporates and hospitals. However, he declined to divulge more details.

Sources said one would have to reinforce the building foundation to adjust the weight of helipad and helicopter if helibase is built on rooftop with concrete.

"However, more corporates are showing interest to set up helipad with composite materials as it falls within the ICAO parameters," they added.

In the next five years, the country will have about 1,000 helicopters, apart from those used by the armed forces, according to various estimates prepared by international helicopter manufacturing companies. At present, the country has about 200 civilian helicopters.

Besides Bell Helicopters and Eurocopter, other helicopter manufacturers such as Sikorsky and Agusta Westland are making a beeline to grab a chunk of the Indian market.