PANJIM: A seaplane’s landing at Captain of Ports’ (CoP) jetty on Saturday, second time within a month, once again caught the attention of the people.
Sources said that Spicejet had obtained permission from the CoP to conduct landing, refuelling, and taking off their 8Q-ISC seaplane from the floating jetty on Saturday and Sunday. Its alternate landing point was at Chapora River, only to land at its first choice.
The arrival of the seaplane on Saturday was around 3 pm led to traffic jam in the capital with people eager to take a glimpse of the seaplane. It will depart on Sunday between 7.30 am and 8.30 am.
Last month, a 15-seater DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft of Maldivian Aero had taken a similar temporary technical halt at the jetty while enroute to Ahmedabad. The seaplane that belonged to Maldives National Airlines and leased out to Spicejet for tourism activity in Gujarat, took off — a day later — after refueling at the jetty.
The area for landing of the seaplanes has been designated west of Mandovi bridges to Aguada sand bar. The alternative site in Chapora River has been west of Siolim bridge to the mouth of Chapora River. All vessels plying in the two rivers are directed not to navigate in the notified area during the landing and taking off the seaplanes.
Goa was the first to take up the commercial seaplane operations during the tenure of Dilip Parulekar as the tourism minister in the previous regime of the BJP-led government. However, the project was riddled with various hiccups and has till date failed to take off. The State was expected to get a boost in tourism but has now remained only as a halting destination.
