Seaplane services on pilgrim trails from Sept 19

The state tourism corporation, which last month launched seaplane services connecting Juhu airport to Pawana dam (Lonavala), on Tuesday announced similar rides to religious destination of Meherabad, Shirdi and Shani Shinglapur. These services are expected to kick start from Sept 19.

All the three destinations attract pilgrims throughout the year. The price of (seaplane) tickets may, however, be a dampener. The one-way introductory fare has been fixed at Rs 5,499 per passenger.

Officials at MEHAIR, the company operating the project, said initially there would be one flight per day, except on Thursdays when there will be two.

Valsa Nair-Singh, secretary, Tourism and managing director, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), said: "This is MTDC's first of its kind initiative and we hope local, domestic and international tourists would take advantage of it. We will come up with many more such initiatives for tourists in the near future."

Siddharth Verma, co-founder & director, MEHAIR, said: "The service will now enable pilgrims travelling to Meherabad, Shirdi and Shani Shinglapur to travel to their destinations in about 45 minutes plus a short road trip, as opposed to the six-hour journey by road."

MEHAIR also has plans to launch services to Gangapur dam (Nashik) and Dhoom dam in Mahabaleshwar (Satara) in the coming weeks.

Maharashtra is the first state in main-land India to have seaplane services connecting various tourists destinations.