If you think travelling by vehicles, bus or train to tourist spots is time consuming, then the tourism department has an answer. It proposes to start heli-tourism, prevalent in western countries, to draw tourists to Karnataka.

Inspired by heli-tourism culture in Las Vegas, where tourists can opt for helicopters to see Grand Canyon, tourism minister G Janardhan Reddy on Thursday announced that such a concept would be introduced in Karnataka.

To give a fillip to the proposal, industrialist-politician Anand Singh, who won on BJP ticket from Hospet in Bellary district, has come forward to take up an ambitious heli-tourism project at an estimated cost of Rs 250 crore, by operating at least 20 helicopters. Singh, a mining czar and Reddy’s confidant, will purchase the helicopters and press them into service in the coastal corridor — from Mangalore to Karwar — and the Hampi-Bijapur circuit.

Unlike the heli-tourism venture in Grand Canyon, where the tourists are flown in helicopters from Las Vegas and taken around the Grand Canyon with a stopover to watch the sunset, tourists will get to travel to prominent places of attraction along the coastal region and given the option of having breakfast or lunch on the beaches or taken from Hampi to Badami, Pattadakal and Aihole from Hospet with the option of having breakfast or lunch at some place en route or at the Tungabhadra dam, Reddy said.

The minister, who returned from a 15-day tour of Europe and US along with health minister B Sriramulu and key officials of tourism department, said several investors had evinced interest in setting up tourism-related projects, including heli and medical tourism, in the state.

The Centre, in a move to give boost to heli-tourism, is holding a conclave on October 1 in New Delhi, where helicopter operators would be invited to invest and suggest ways and means to promote this concept.

Finer details of the heli-tourism project in the state are being worked out, Reddy said pointing out that it should become quite popular among foreign tourists as attractive sight-seeing and historic places will be offered in the package.

Reddy, who also holds infrastructure portfolio, said air-connectivity across the state would be given a boost by constructing airports in 13 district headquarters capable of handling aircraft up to 200-seat capacity and airstrips in 10 other districts to handle up to 50-seater aircraft.

“Priority will be given to constructing 25 heliports in other important tourist and business centres. While work on constructing airports at Hassan, Bijapur and Bellary has already started, the work on Gulbarga and Shimoga airports will begin soon,’’ he said.

Source: TNN