Helicopter services for devotees visiting the Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple in Vemulawada for Mahasivaratri has proved to be a big hit with the local residents.
It was launched between Hyderabad and Vemulawada by the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation in collaboration with the Telangana State Aviation Corporation on February 20. Three packages were on offer — ₹30,000 per person for a round trip between Hyderabad and Vemulawada; ₹3,000 each for a seven-minute aerial tour of Vemulawada and ₹5,500 per head for a bird’s-eye view of the temple town and Mid-Manair Dam with 16 minutes of flying time.
No takers in Hyderabad
Though there were no takers from Hyderabad because of the steep cost, the services came in handy for the locals and other pilgrims for enjoying the other two packages.
The chopper made nearly 15 trips on Friday and 21 trips on Saturday. The service would be made available on Sunday too and the authorities are expecting a huge rush.
Temple authorities said pilgrims from Hyderabad did not utilise the chopper services as the tourism authorities announced the launch of helicopter services at the last minute and there was no publicity about the initiative. Besides, the tourism authorities had not mentioned about VIP darshan, accommodation facilities and food being included in the helicopter ride, they said.
Despite that, there has been very good response locally, they added and hoped that the numbers will improve for next year’s Mahasivaratri.
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