Himachal has four UDAN helicopter points in the books at Rampur, Mandi, Reckong Peo, Sanjauli. The next UDAN decade budgets Rs.3,661 crore for 200 helipads in hills, the Northeast and aspirational districts. States will nominate sites on a portal. Concrete pours faster than an instrument procedure. Chardham shuttles this year remain day VFR, with a pilot-hour floor and a daily cap. The Centre has said there is no ILS plan for Kangra, Kullu or Shimla even as fog cancels the aeroplanes. An RNAV at Kangra and a VOR trial at Shimla are the substitutes. A heliport without weather, obstacles surveyed, fuel, a fire line and a published way in cloud is like a photograph not an actual heliport.
Mountain flying dies in the afternoon when the valley fills. An inauguration in April does not publish operating days in July. Emergency use, a night medevac, a stranded pilgrim needs a forecast that is local, not a district average and a crew that is legal after the last tourist sector. Uttarakhand’s own review after the first Chardham phase asked for more weather stations. That is the audit when counted cancellations against the inaugurations.
Until the approach exists on a chart and the fuel truck exists on a Tuesday, the 200-helipad target is a landing area. The network starts when the helicopter can come back in weather that would have grounded the ceremony.