PANJIM: The launch of the helicopter joy rides set to be launched on Sunday by the Union Minister of Defence Manohar Parrikar and Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma was canceled. The Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) has stated that it was cancelled due to unavoidable circumstances.
“The scheduled launch of the helicopter rides has been canceled as Sharma could not come due to his pre-occupations,” a senior GTDC officer told reporters.
However, despite stiff opposition from the ruling as well as opposition side to the helicopter landing at the Aguada helipad, GTDC has said that helicopter joy ride as a part of high end tourism will start the commercial operation from tomorrow or day after.
GTDC has entered into agreement with the Mumbai-based Pawan Hans firm to start the joy rides.
Bell-206 helicopters will take off from Campal, Panaji and land at the Aguada helipad across River Mandovi. The helipad was constructed during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 1983 for emergency evacuations.
The protestors led by BJP MLA Michael Lobo and Congress’ former legislator Agnelo Fernandes had decided to stage protests on the helipad at Aguada, when the inaugural flight would arrive on Sunday.
“We had decided not to allow the helicopter to land, as the all the villagers don’t want this kind of tourism in their village,” Lobo said.
Agnelo Fernandes, former Congress MLA from Calangute, said that the local guest house owners had expressed apprehensions that landing of helicopter will create noise pollution in the vicinity and will also affect flora and fauna on the plateau where the Helipad is located.
Earlier last evening, Pawan Hans and GTDC, in a statement released, had strongly countered the opposition raised by locals and the industry stake-holders from Candolim and Sinquerim to the new service.
Describing the objections as frivolous and baseless, the GTDC and Pawan Hans had stated that helicopter joy rides will neither cause any noise pollution nor turn the disturb the waters or damage the eco sensitive areas of Candolim and Sinquerim.
“Helicopter rides will raise the profile for tourism in the area and boost the local economy and provide employment opportunities for the locals from the area,” said Sanjay Chodankar, General Manager of GTDC.
Chodankar said the new helicopter joy ride service is being commenced within GTDC’s own property measuring 10,000 square metres and the area is being developed for the same.
