| Details : | Group Captain Pradip Kumar Routa (20565) was commissioned in the Indian Air Force as an engineer in the Aeronautical Engineering (Electronics) branch on 05 Mar 89. He has held various appointments like Senior Engineer in three helicopter units and UN Mission in Congo, Production Engineer at a helicopter overhaul depot and Joint Director of Inspection at Air HQ. The officer developed Russian testers of Mi-8 helicopter to enhance quality of servicing. He was cash awarded by The President of India. Russian helicopters had emergency landings for spurious fire warnings in the cockpit. He designed antispurious circuit, which was subsequently modified into all Mi-17 helicopters of IAF. Non availability of long endurance oxygen system in helicopters restricted flying mission in Siachen sector. He designed and developed an integrated high/low pressure oxygen system which was subsequently developed by Russians. Infrastructure for the only self sustained first Indian contingent at UN Mission Congo was set up by the officer in inhospitable weather conditions. Gp Capt Pradip Kumar Routa is a graduate from Air Force Technical College, Bangalore and post graduate in engineering from TIT, Patiala. The officer is trained on all Mi series helicopters in India and engine overhaul at MotoSich (Ukraine). He was commended by the Chief of Air Staff in 1993. Reliability of MT vehicles was a point of concern at the largest transit base, Guwahati. Segregation of vehicles based on type specific, independent team to take care, centralised preventive maintenance planning and roadworthiness certification was implemented by the officer. This improved the reliability. Poor quality of compressed gas has resulted in an aircraft incident. The officer created a test lab of its kind to ensure high quality. Induction of Dornier aircraft to station resulted large dependency on HAL. The officer created maintenance set up/ test labs and achieved very high serviceability. With personal involvement and expertise, he ensured nil servicing errors and managed incidents/accidents free flying. The contribution of the officer in providing helicopters for earth quake relief operation at Manipur was noteworthy. For distinguished service of high order, Hon'ble President is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Group Captain Pradip Kumar Routa. |
