ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The United Nations Helicopter Assistance Service (UNHAS) has decided to curtail its services in the quake zone because of funding shortfall.

It is feared that scaling down of air operation could adversely affect the relief operation.

UNHAS had earlier warned that it would run out of funding by the end of February 2006, if it continued operating at the same rate and financial assistance from donors does not pick up.

According to the latest notification there will be no more UNHAS flights on weekends from February 18.

United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC) attributed this development to paucity of funds saying: “these cuts in service are due to a funding shortfall.”

If the funding situation does not improve, the UN management is considering to further curtail the UNHAS flights. “Further changes and reductions will also be made to the weekday operation if the situation persists,” UNJLC stated.

It is estimated that an additional $13 million are needed to continue helicopter operations until the end of this special operation, currently set at April 14, 2006.

An additional $69 million is required to prolong the project to December 31, 2006.

These calculations are based on the assumption that helicopter support operations require approximately $500,000/day.

Since the start of the air operations, UNHAS has airlifted 13,139 tons of food items, 3,334 tons of non-food items and 27,799 passengers.

Twenty UNHAS helicopters are currently operational. In addition, UNHAS tasks four US and two other helicopters on a day- to-day basis bringing the total air assets under UNHAS to 26.