These cabs may find themselves chilled to the bone at the prospect of being priced out of business by the proposed private helicopter services in the city
The cool cab drivers in city may find themselves chilled to the bone at the prospect of being priced out of business by private helicopter services operating in the city in less than four months from now. The charges per passenger for a one-way fare between the international airport and Nariman Point may cost even as little as Rs 600 to 700. Air Deccan and the Helicopter Corporation of India have already evinced a keen interest to offer helicopter services from the base.
What’s more, an additional attraction for those using these services would be the prospect of landing and taking off from the decommissioned warship and aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant! The ship would be transformed into a maritime museum, with a permanent helibase for the chopper services on board.
Confirming this, managing director of the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) RC Sinha said: “The Maharashtra government has written to the Union fisheries and animal husbandry department to transfer the property title of a one acre plot located between the Sassoon Dock and the Bombay Port Trust (BPT) residential colony to its name. This site, once handed over to the state government, can be developed within 90 days as a temporary helibase with two helipads and a transit lounge.”
Sinha adds: “We expect the INS Vikrant maritime museum project to be functionally afloat at the proposed Oyster Rock site within a couple of years. Once that is ready, the former aircraft carrier will revert to serving as one even if only for the helicopter services.” The MADC managing director plans to run the helibase in a operator-friendly ambience to make chopper travel an affordable reality for the citizens of Mumbai. “We do not intend to levy from private operators any landing charges. The revenue of the helibase would be generated through a fixed tariff rate of Rs 10 or Rs 20 per passenger from the private operators utilising the helibase services,” he adds.
Sinha envisages a minimum of 48 flights daily from the commissioned helibase. His logic for the same: “In our interactions with Air Deccan we have learnt that several of their flights such as the Kolhapur-Belgaum segment are a flight of fancy for many first time air travellers (especially farmers) who shell out Rs 500 for a one way flight and then board a state transport bus for their return journey.”
He rationalises how in Mumbai city cool cab travellers who shell out Rs 500 to Rs 600 for a one way ride through traffic from the airport to Nariman Point would not be able to resist the offer of a quick flight that would subsequently (after INS Vikrant is pressed into service) will include the trappings of a war museum on the high seas as an added attraction.
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