Ooty, Uttarakhand chopper plans hit roadblock

New Delhi: Attempts by Pawan Hans to connect tourist destinations with helicopter services is encountering roadblocks of a peculiar nature. While at Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand it is religious objections that’s holding back the helicopter services, at Ooty it is the dislocation of some 30 animals that has jeopardised Pawan Hans’ plans.
At both the hill stations, the Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) was to start operations from already existing helipads that needed minor upgradation. So, when at the behest of Uttarakhand Government, PHHL started to study possibilities of helicopter services to the picturesque Sikh shrine at Hemkund Sahib, the shrine’s priests objected vociferously. They argued that the helipad is located at an altitude higher than the shrine and it will be disrespect to the shrine to have helicopters land just above it.
At Ooty’s Theetukal helipad, it is the question of dislocating 30 animals that has put on hold a two-year plan proposed by the Tamil Nadu Government to run chopper services between Coimbatore and the Nilgiri hill station.
While the tourism department said it would give the animal husbandry department five acres of land in lieu of the helipad land and will create a separate access to it and ensure that livestock in the area is not disturbed, the latter is not satisfied. The animal husbandry department has demanded that it be given 30 acres of land elsewhere in Ooty. It is next to impossible to fulfil this demand in highly commercialised Ooty.
19/03/08 Anubhuti Vishnoi/Indian Express

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Mar 2008