Tirupati: Pawan Hans, a helitourism organisation of Government of India, is launching a package trip to Srikalahasti from Tirupati by helicopter to attract more tourists and helicopter enthusiasts.
The package has almost been finalised. The fare would be Rs 6,000 to and fro for each person including darshan arrangements.
The darshan arrangements in the temple will be looked after by the AP tourism department. The tourism department people will arrange quick darshan to helicopter tourists to avoid waiting for long, after discussions with the temple management in Srikalahasti which is 40 km away by road from Tirupati.
AP Tourism department in collaboration with Pawan Hans launched a joy ride (12 minutes in air) at the previous Salakatla Brahmotsavam which evoked a huge response from public and again the same joy ride shuttles was started by tourism department for the ongoing annual Brahmotsavam. Pawan Hans organisation started this heli-tourism on a no profit no loss basis in Tir-upati to develop tourism in the temple town.
“We will start soon a package to Srikalahasti from Tirupati and fare would be around '6,000 per head. After the darshan t, we will take them back to Tirupati. This is one of the ways to improve tourism in Tirupati,” said Manish Rokade, deputy general manager of Pawan Hans Ltd.
Pawan Hans has been running helicopter services at Kedarnath and Badrinath hill shrines where devotees have to go on foot by trekking steep and narrow mountain roads or by dolis to reach the temple. Going by the overwhelming response Pawan Hans introduced heli-tourism in Tirupati on similar lines of Kedarnath and Badrinath.
Heli-tourism also evoked unexpected response from devotees during the recent Godavari Pushkaralu.
However, such enthusiastic response has not been noticed from the devotees coming to Tirumala or the public.
To meet the maintenance cost, the Pawan Hans decided to start package to Srikalahasti.
“We are getting poor response from the public compared to last Brahmotsavam. So we have planned a package tour between Tirupati and Srikalahasti to improve the heli-tourism here by which we can meet minimum maintenance,” Mr Rokade said.
