Soon, sea planes to ferry city's tourists

Tourists heading for safaris at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and devotees of Saints Saibaba at Shirdi and Gajanan Maharaj at Shegaon may soon be able to travel to these destinations by sea planes.

The Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) is planning to start sea plane services across locations in the state. It is also looking at facilitating sea plane services from Mumbai to connect tourist spots and pilgrimage centres. These aircraft will be anchored at locations like Gorai, Bandra, Mandwa, Belapur, Manori, and the Vasai and Borivali creeks.

The MMB has already invited bidders for sea plane services to connect three locations namely, the Koradi Temple near Nagpur, the TATR in Chandrapur, and Shegaon in Akola district, with Nagpur as the nodal hub. This will be done in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MahaGenco) and the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT).

"This will enable us to tap the tourist potential... The MMB has floated expressions of interest (EOI) to gauge the response of bidders," said Atul Patne, CEO, MMB, adding that they plan to create a circuit in Vidarbha covering Nagpur, Koradi, Tadoba, and Shegaon.

These ventures will be funded under the Sagarmala Project.

He added that while the MahaGenco was willing to offer the use of its reservoirs at the Koradi Thermal Power Station and the Irai Dam (Chandrapur) for the planes to land, the MMB was in talks with the NIT for using the Ambazari Lake for landings and take offs.