Moving Beyond Airports: Uttarakhand Government Looks To Seaplanes To Boost Tourism In Tehri

Uttarakhand cabinet, in a bid to attract domestic and foreign tourists, gave its approval to seaplane operations in Tehri lake on Wednesday (26 December), Times of India has reported.

The state government will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Airport Authority of India and the central government to construct a seaplane landing space on the lake.

A seaplane can land on a water body as well as land and would cost near about Rs 15 crore. The state cabinet had earlier reduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) on seaplane fuel from 20 per cent to just one per cent.

Urban Development Minister and state government spokesperson Madan Kaushik said that if everything goes as planned, the first seaplane will land on Tehri lake by next year.

According to the report, tourists will be ferried in a 12 to 20 seater airplane from the Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun to Tehri lake. The charge for the journey will be Rs 5,000 per head.

“The Uttarakhand cabinet has approved a proposal sent by the Centre to land a seaplane at Tehri Lake. The project is part of Centre’s Udan scheme,” Kaushik was quoted in the report as saying.

As per the report, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had earlier this year emphasised on the state’s huge potential for seaplanes as mode of transport due to water bodies like Tehri lake and Nainital lake.