Monday, Aug 25, 2014
Mumbai: A sea plane service connecting Mumbai and Lonavla, a hill station in the Western Ghats, was flagged off Monday at the Juhu aerodrome from where the first batch of passengers took off and will land at Pawana dam in Lonavla in less than half an hour.
What normally takes two to three hours or even more by road depending on the traffic, the short flight covering the 100-km distance is expected to be a great hit with tourists and weekenders who normally rush off to nearby hill stations for a short break.
Operated jointly by the Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), the amphibian planes will eventually connect Mumbai with several state tourist destinations adjacent to four suitable water bodies even though there are no runways at these destinations. The flights from Mumbai to Pawana Dam, Lonavla, are priced at Rs2,999 (Dh181) per person one way.
Siddharth Verma, co-founder and director, said the first seaplane service in India is taking off from Mumbai and will be “the first step towards covering India with a seaplane network over the next 3-5 years. I am sure Mumbaikars will find the service extremely safe, useful and exciting and the service will become a vital cog in the tourism initiative of the state and both tourists as well as pilgrims will benefit from it, given that it is connecting tourist as well as religious centres.”
Jagdish Patil, managing director of MTDC, said, “These services will boost tourism greatly. Seaplanes will turn vacation destinations into weekend destinations. The fatigue involved in reaching these destinations will also come down drastically.”
The seaplane service is being launched in Maharashtra with Cessna 208 Amphibian aircraft (a 9-seater) and Cessna 206 Amphibian (4-seater).
Booking for other locations will begin in September to Aamby Valley, a luxurious township near Lonavla; to Mula Dam which will be close to the religious centres of Shirdi, Meherabad and Shani Shinglapur and to the Gangapur Dam near the city of Nashik. The industrial sites of Chakan and Talegaon will be approachable from the Bhama Ashkhed dam while travellers to the picturesque hill stations of Panchgani and Mahableshwar and the town of Wai, would be landing and taking off from the Dhom dam on the Krishna river near Wai. Apart from Nashik, most of these places have no air connectivity.
The MTDC is also collaborating with the irrigation ministry to identify various lakes, rivers and around 50 dams, as well as other big and small water bodies in remote areas of the state to be connected by seaplanes. MEHAIR on its part plans to expand to coastal areas and landlocked states with lakes, rivers, backwaters or dams. Seaplanes require either a 1-km-long airstrip or a water body which is a km long and at least 10 feet deep.
The seaplanes will fly between 700-3,500 feet, thus giving a spectacular view of the lovely features of the land below.
Mehair pioneered the launch of seaplanes in India three years back in Andaman and Nicobar Islands where the service was being used by tourists, locals as well as the administration for connecting various island-destinations with the capital city of Port Blair. The company will also be launching similar services in Goa, too.
By Pamela Raghunath?Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
