ETW Staff– Mumbai
Maritime Energy Heli Air Services (MEHAIR) and Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) have announced that the next destination of the seaplanes service will be Mula dam, Ahmednagar. Mula dam is a waterdrome located between the religious destinations of Meherabad, Shirdi and Shani Shinglapur all of which attracts lakhs of pilgrims throughout the year. The service will commence on September 19, 2014 and initially there will be one flight per day departing Mumbai at 08:30 Hrs except Thursdays when there will be two flights departing at 08:30 Hrs and 14:00 Hrs respectively.
Valsa Nair- Singh, secretary tourism and managing director, MTDC, said, “This is a first of its kind unique initiative of MTDC and we hope that local, domestic and international tourists take advantage of this service. We will be coming up with many more such offers and initiatives for the tourists in near future.”
Speaking on the occasion, SiddharthVerma, co-founder and director, MEHAIR, said, “We have received a tremendous response from the fliers for Pawana (Lonavala). The service will now enable the large number of pilgrims travelling to the holy sites of Meherabad, Shirdi and Shani Shinglapur to travel quickly and conveniently to their destinations in about 45 minutes plus a short road trip as opposed to six hour journey by road. We are confident that the people will see the immense value of the service and will take full advantage of it.”
Besides Pawana and Mula dam, MEHAIR is also poised to launch services to Gangapur dam in Nashik and Dhoom dam in Mahabaleshwar (Satara district) in the coming weeks. The amphibian planes will eventually connect Mumbai with multiple tourist destinations in the state, adjacent to suitable water bodies. The seaplane service operates with Cessna 208 Amphibian aircraft (nine seater) and Cessna 206 Amphibian (four seater).
Tickets on the flights from Mumbai to Mula dam are available at an inaugural price of INR5,499 per person one way.
