Fly to Kodai, at Just Rs. 5,000

Fly to Kodai, at Just Rs. 5,000

Madurai: Helicopter tourism, which will take tourists from Madurai to various destinations across the southern districts, will soon become a reality with the Tamil Nadu Government giving a green signal to the project.

A decision to this effect was taken at the consultative meeting chaired by Chief Secretary L K Tripathy in Chennai recently. The District Collectors of the southern districts have initiated preliminary work for the project.

With the Airports Authority of India (AAI) giving the green signal for helicopter services at the Madurai airport, land has been identified for setting up helipads at Ramanathapuram and Kodaikanal, two major tourist destinations in the southern districts.

“Pawan Hans Helicopter Ltd (PHHL) will provide the services and a passenger facilitation centre will be opened at the Madurai airport shortly,” said S Jawahar, Madurai District Collector.

Initially, Hel-Sorte, a helicopter service between Madurai and Ramanathapuram and Madurai and Kodaikanal will be introduced, Sanjay Kumar, Deputy General Manager (Marketing), PHHL, told this website’s newspaper.

PHHL is ready to lease out five-passenger capacity helicopters with pilots either to the government or private parties and charges will be collected based on flying hours.

“For a half hour journey from Madurai to Kodaikanal, the approximate cost will be Rs 25,000(which works out to Rs 5,000 per passenger),” Kumar said.

“Twenty-five acres of land near Dhanuskodi has been identified for the helipad. We are awaiting financial assistance from the State Government,” said Krilosh Kumar, Ramanathapuram District Collector.

With no rail link to Kodaikanal, the new initiative will be a boon to tourists visiting the hill spot. “We have identified 20 hectares of land in Villpatti near Kodaikanal for the helipad,” Dindigul District Collector S Vasuki said.

Fly to Kodai, at Just Rs. 5,000

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