Forestry ministry has new helicopters<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Forestry began operating on
\nTuesday its two new Bell-142 helicopters, which will be used
\nmainly to combat forest fires.<\/p>\n
The ministry received the aircraft on Monday from PT Daya Jasa
\nTransindo Pratama, which won the tender to procure them from PT
\nDirgantara Indonesia, the state-owned company which assembled the
\nAmerican helicopters.<\/p>\n
The ministry, which paid Rp 84.69 billion (US$8.9 million) for
\nthe two helicopters, already has eight BO-105 helicopters, but
\nonly one is operational.<\/p>\n
Ministry secretary-general Suripto said one of the new
\nhelicopters would be based in East Kalimantan and the other in
\nRiau. The aircraft also will be used for such purposes as
\npatrolling the forests and transporting passengers and goods.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has been widely criticized by Singapore and Malaysia
\nfor failing to deal with the numerous forest fires that have sent
\nclouds of haze over their territories during the dry season.<\/p>\n
Suripto said between 1997 and 1998 the total forest area
\ndamaged by fire was 7.5 million hectares.<\/p>\n
A member of the ministry's technical staff, Safroedin Rahmat,
\nsaid the design of the Bell-412 made it ideal to combat fires,
\nand noted the aircraft also was used in Germany, France and
\nCanada for this purpose. \"We don't need to modify the choppers in
\norder to install fire-fighting devices.\"<\/p>\n
Under the procurement contract, Daya Jasa Transindo Pratama,
\nin cooperation with Dirgantara Indonesia, will provide
\nmaintenance for the helicopters for the first four months of
\ntheir operation. (03)<\/p>",
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