(NSI News Source Info) New Delhi - March 1, 2009: India will supply 'Dhruv' Advanced Light Helicopter to Mauritius, the second country this year after Ecuador to get the multi-role, multi-mission new generation chopper.
The helicopter, built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, is likely to be handed over this month to Mauritius for use by its police, officials said here.
The aforementioned Dhruv helicopters of the Ecuadorian Air Force. HAL is negotiating with Bolivia for delivery of five Dhruvs and with Venezuela for seven of the choppers in transport roles, and in Europe. The Dhruv is also being offered to Malaysia. Indonesia is also evaluating Dhruv helicopters for the Indonesian Army. Mauritius is also considering Dhruv helicopters.
The state-of-the-art helicopter is being supplied under an inter-governmental MoU concluded last week. The chopper, which costs around seven million USD, is being supplied under a USD 100 million line of credit extended by India to Mauritius over three years ago, they said.
Ecuador became the first country to acquire Dhruv helicopters last month when it signed a contract for seven choppers for its Air Force.
The armed version of Dhruv can be fitted with rockets and a 20 mm gun. Dhruv also has a variant which is equipped with 'fire and forget' air-to-air missiles and 70 mm rockets that can be fired in direct and indirect mode.
Dhruv won the Ecuadorian contract, outperforming rival machines from from global majors like Eurocopter, mainly due to its lower price tag.
Equador already got five helicopters and the remaining two will be handed over in six months.
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