Nanded (Maharashtra), May 29 (IANS): Officials suffered anxious moments as a helicopter carrying Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao was "delayed" by 20 minutes in reaching its destination on Friday, sources said.

The governor was expected in a village near Kinwat in Nanded district to attend a function as part of his ongoing tour of Nanded, Aurangabad and Dhule.

The chopper with two pilots -- Capt Sanjay Karve and Capt Mahendra Dalvi, the governor and three others took off from Nanded for its onward destination.

"At that time, the temperatures above Nanded was around 45-46 degrees Celsius and not suitable for the chopper," an official, requesting anonymity, told IANS.

"Accordingly, a 20-km-long detour was taken to avoid the hot weather and the speed was cut to reduce the load on the engines. This resulted in a delay of around 20 minutes."

The chopper reached the intended destination -- a tribal village in Kinwat -- after the 20-minute delay.

The governor is expected to return to Mumbai on Saturday.