NEW DELHI: The long-pending joint venture between India and Russia to manufacture 200 Kamov-226T light-utility helicopters for around $1 billion (over Rs 6,500 crore) is now finally set to kick off, with Russian President Vladimir Putin giving the formal approval for the enterprise under the “Make in India” policy.Defence ministry sources on Wednesday said Russia’s “green signal” for the “activation” of the JV between defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics and Russian companies has now being received by India.This much-delayed project for the light utility helicopters is considered crucial because India’s endeavour to buy 197 such choppers from abroad has been scrapped three times over the last decade due to corruption allegations and technical deviations.Overall, the armed forces urgently need 484 light choppers to replace their obsolete single-engine Cheetah/Chetak fleets, which have been dogged by a high crash rate and serviceability problems, as reported earlier by TOI.India and Russia has inked the inter-governmental agreement for the light choppers in December 2015, following which the shareholders pact for the joint venture to manufacture the Ka-226T helicopters in India was signed during the Modi-Putin summit in Goa in October 2016.But the JV, in which HAL has the majority 50.5% stake, has been hanging fire since then due to pricing and technology transfer issues. Under the agreement, the first 60 choppers will come from Russia, while the rest will be manufactured in India over nine years.The twin-engine Kamov-226Ts are multi-role helicopters, which can undertake reconnaissance, patrol and disaster relief operations as well as transport eight combat-ready soldiers with a maximum range of 600-km.Incidentally, a group of wives of Army officers had earlier even petitioned the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar to stop the use of the “outdated and ageing” Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, which do not have modern avionics but are even flown to service forward areas like the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge region.