Visitors to the lake can now fly with the helium balloon up to a height of 350 ft and have an aerial view of the whole city during a 15-minute flight.
The Kankaria lakefront acquired another attraction on Wednesday when chief minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the long-awaited 'tethered helium balloon' at the place. Visitors to the lake can now fly with the helium balloon up to a height of 350 ft and have an aerial view of the whole city during a 15-minute flight.
The helium balloon has been made by Lindstrand Technologies, a UK company that has installed such balloons in 55 cities across 20 countries. The balloon that was inaugurated at Kankaria lake on Wednesday has the capacity to fly to a height of 350 feet with 30 people. It is filled with nearly 6,500 cubic metres of helium.
The balloon complies with the safety norms for such flying objects set by the director general of civil aviation (DGCA) and the Airport Authority of India (AAI). Sources said the white-coloured balloon will have commercial advertisements on it, too, to make it colourful.
The Ahmedabad municipal corporation (AMC) has fixed Rs100 for adults and Rs75 for children, for a flight lasting 15 minutes. However, 100 students from the municipal schools in the city will get a free ride every week.
Sources in the AMC said the civic body was not certain that the balloon could be inaugurated on Wednesday. The balloon was expected to reach Gujarat from the UK much earlier but because of a ship collision in the Arabian Sea, it got delayed.
So it was diverted to Mundra port and from there it was brought to Ahmedabad by road, and not by rail as planned earlier. However, the balloon was made to fly within four days of its arrival in the city, the sources said.
In his speech at the inauguration, the chief minister appealed to the AMC to allow free rides to 5,000 children from below poverty line (BPL) families every year. He also urged the civic body to charge only Rs10 from schoolchildren below 15 years, from 8 am to 10 am on weekdays, except public holidays.
The venue of the public meeting for the inauguration was muddy and it lacked the necessary facilities. "It was good that the rain stopped half-an-hour before the CM's arrival," a corporator said. "Otherwise, the whole programme would have been ruined."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}