Heli service starts from Doon’s Sahastradhara to Gauchar, Chinyalisaur in Uttarakhand

The first-ever helicopter facility from the Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun to Gauchar and Chinyalisaur has been officially made operational by the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the Government of India.
Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, and Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, MoCA along with other officials from MoCA and State Government inaugurated the service. The chopper routes in Uttarakhand have been started by the ministry to boost the regional connectivity in the Himalayan state, where several remote destinations deserve connectivity.

News has it that the Sahastradhara-Gauchar-Chinyalisaur route was bestowed to Heritage Aviation under the UDAN 2 auction. Now, Heritage Aviation will run chopper services twice every day from Sahastradhara to Gauchar and Chinyalisaur. The Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is given under UDAN for the heli services to keep the tariff reasonable to the public. The Uttarakhand state government is also offering extra incentives in order to make the scheme more viable and lucrative.

The helicopter services from the Sahastradhara helipad to Gauchar and Chinyalisaur have been started on demand of the local residents of the mountainous terrains. The services will not only give a big push to the tourism sector in Uttarakhand but will also assist the Char Dham Yatra pilgrims. It should be noted that Gauchar is located on the way towards Badrinath, and Chinyalisaur is situated on the route towards Gangotri in the Uttarkashi district.

Currently, the helicopter services run under UDAN are operational from Chandigarh to Shimla, Shimla to Kullu and Shimla to Dharamshala.
With the start of the Sahastradhara-Gauchar-Chinyalisaur route, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has now made 260 routes operational under UDAN.