The Uttarakhand Government has completed the upgradation work at the Jolly Grant Airport and Pant Nagar Airport. The airports are scheduled to start operations in February, 2008. Besides, three airstrips at Naini Saini in Pithorgarh, Gochar in Chamoli and Chinyalisaur in Uttarkashi are also ready for operations.

Talking to TravelBiz Monitor, Prakash Pant, Minister of Tourism, Uttarakhand, said, “The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has said that it will start operations at these airports by the last week of February.” The state has already written to all the airlines, asking them to start operations to Uttarakhand. Till date, it has got responses from Indian Airlines, Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines.

While Deccan will initially start with a frequency of two flights a week, the other two airlines are yet to decide on their flight frequency. Prior to the commencement of the upgradation work, Indian Airlines, Jagson Airlines and Air Deccan operated from the airports. “After the upgradation, the airports now have the capacity to handle the landing of Airbus 320 and Boeing 787. The Jolly Grant Airport at Dehradun essentially caters to the Gharwal region in the state, while the Pant Nagar Airport caters to the Kumano region,” offered Pant.

Commenting on the need to extend helicopter operations in the state, Pant said, “We want to extend the helicopter facility to the Char Dhams of Uttarakhand, i.e. Gangotri, Yamnotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. We would also like to extend it to Hemkunth Sahib, the renowned religious pilgrimage site of the Sikhs. The government will provide free water, security, power, fire services, etc, to the helipads.”

At present, talks are going on with Jagson Airlines, Prabhatam Aviation and Pawan Hans Helicopter Services, and Jagson Airlines has already evinced interest in the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, which the state is keen to promote through helitourism. The state government has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Gharwal Mandal Vikas and Pawan Hans Helicopter Services for developing religious tourism in the state.

Currently, the state has 64 helipads, of which 40 are controlled by the state government, while the rest are under the control of the Indo Tibetian Border Police Force (ITBP). Of the 40 state-owned helipads, 15 are still under construction.

News Source: http://www.travelbizmonitor.com