President's office turns down Himachal helipad request

The office of the president of India has refused to grant permission to the Himachal Pradesh government to allow it to use a VVIP helipad for tourism, some 15 km uphill from here.

Said state Secretary for Tourism Avay Shukla: "The president's house has turned down our request for using this helipad and now we will have to explore other options as there is no wide space in the mountainous terrain to build a helipad."

The president and the prime minister use the helipad once or twice a year on their visits to their summerhouse called Retreat - a colonial bungalow in the nearby woodlands at Charabra.

The state government had pleaded that it be allowed to use the facility as it remains unused for most of the year and could help in tourism promotion in interior Shimla and Kinnaur districts.

State Tourism Minister G.S. Bali made a presentation before the officials of the president's office to convince them to allow the use of the helipad to boost the Himachal Pradesh tourism.

Top hoteliers of the state capital also lobbied hard for the helipad so that high-end tourists could be flown in directly and the time, required by road from Chandigarh, could be saved.

"This is indeed a big jolt to tourism in the state. The permission was turned down even though we were willing to vacate it when a VVIP need to use it," said a hotelier here.

"This news has come at a time when the state government is actually considering starting a mass heli-taxi service in the other helipads to promote tourism in off-beat areas of the hill state," added the hotelier.

The state has only three small airports and some 60 helipads and two narrow British built railways tracks and roads are literally the only mode of transport in the state.

(IANS)

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