The seaplane services will connect Mumbai with Lonavala.
IANS/Mumbai
The much-awaited seaplane services connecting Mumbai and Lonavala will be launched on August 25, officials said yesterday.
The service will be operated jointly by Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) and the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, for which bookings have opened.
The service will utilise Cessna 208 (9-seater) and Cessna 206 (4-seater) amphibian aircraft, and the charges will be Rs2,999 per head for a one-way journey, MEHAIR director Siddharth Verma said.
The commercial flights will be operated between Mumbai’s Juhu airport and Pawna Dam in Lonavala. The 100km Mumbai-Lonavala flight will take 25-28 minutes, or one-fourth the time it takes by road now, said MTDC managing director Jagdish Patil.
Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said Maharashtra was the first state in India to have a seaplane service. “This service will provide ease to tourists and locals who travel to various destinations in the state,” Bhujbal said.
Verma said it will be MEHAIR’s first step towards covering India with a seaplane network over the next three-five years.
In January 2011, the company pioneered the launch of seaplanes in India in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. MEHAIR’s test flights were successfully conducted in December 2013 at the Aamby Valley Lake.
The company plans to include Mula Dam, close to the pilgrimage centres of Shirdi, Shani-Shingnapur and Trimbakeshwar in Ahmednagar, Mahabaleshwar and other major destinations which 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.
