NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force will soon add a restored Douglas DC3 ‘Dakota’ to its vintage fleet, with the Narendra Modi government having reversed its predecessor’s decision to refuse the gift. The United Progressive Alliance government had insisted that no rules existed for accepting the plane, even though it was being offered without any strings attached.The DC3 was acquired as scrap in Ireland by Rajya Sabha member and businessman Rajeev Chandrasekhar , whose father was a Dakota pilot in IAF, and has been meticulously restored by him in the UK. It now wears the old IAF colours.The Dakota has played a key role in India’s military history, ferrying the troops that helped to push back Pakistani invaders in Kashmir just after Independence in 1947. That means the arrival of the plane will be nicely timed for the 70th anniversary of Independence next year. IAF’s vintage fleet includes a de Havilland Tiger Moth and an HT-291.Chandrasekhar said the restoration work began in 2010 but he couldn’t interest the UPA government in taking the plane.“They said that there are no rules to take it as a gift. I was doing what I thought was something good. The Dakota in a lot of ways is symbolic of our Independence,” Chandrasekhar said.But he received a better response after writing to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar with the same offer. “This time I don’t think I needed to convince anyone. Anyone with a sense of history and commitment to the armed forces would see it. The moment I wrote a letter to Parrikar, he was very positive on it,” he said.It may take a few months before the DC3 arrives in India as it’s undergoing certifications in the UK that will enable it to be flown over. The aircraft may fly at the prestigious Farnborough show in July.Sourcing parts for the aircraft, although still in service in parts of the world, has not been easy and the engines have had to be completely rebuilt. Chandrasekhar refuses to say how much the restoration has cost.The relatively smaller Tiger Moth was restored for around Rs 1crore while the HT-291 cost the air force over Rs 2.5 crore. While not many vintage DC3s are available in the global market, one listing of a restored 1944 DC3 pegs it at close to $5 million. India did have a set of DC3s at the Sulur air base in restorable condition until the mid-2000s but these were subsequently sold as scrap.More recently, in 2015, India handed over a DC3 in non-working condition to Bangladesh to be displayed at a museum. The aircraft played a significant role in the 1971 war as well, with several major missions to induct troops during the Bangladesh war of liberation.