The State government has decided to send two personnel of the Gadchiroli police to Manching airfield training centre of Airbus in Germany, for training in medical evacuation techniques, which will be used in Naxal-affected areas.
Between August 6 and August 15, they will learn to operate a ‘winch’ system, which controls equipment with powered cables, to hoist and move loads too large, which are generally transported by other means, into a chopper.
A State government official said, “We are spending about ₹5 lakh on training these two police officials, who will learn how to use pedals and levers to operate the system. The training is being provided free of cost by the French company, who had also supplied us a helicopter.”
The State had bought a H-145 chopper from Airbus following an attack on security forces in Gadchiroli on May 1. This was in addition to the two existing choppers in the region, which are mainly used for transporting jawans into the combat zone, officials said. The new medical evacuation techniques will be implemented on the H-145 chopper. After the 10-day training, the team will return for assessment.
The IED blast in Gadchiroli had killed 15 jawans of the Quick Response Team and one civilian. The police had struggled to airlift the injured out of the affected areas in the absence of proper medical evacuation equipment. The Naxals had also torched 27 vehicles belonging to a road construction company the very next day.
Earlier, the State government had sent three pilots for a 75-day training to fly the H-145 helicopters.