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Para-sail drifts away to Vizag
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R. Balaji dissects the reasons for the shifting of the dream project.
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WHAT SHOULD have been the pride of Vijayawada, has now become a proud possession for the neighboring Visakhapatnam city.The thrill of being propelled into the air towards the bewitching blue skies and descending down from a 200-feet altitude amidst the picturesque River Krishna in a parachute, appears to have little takers in Vijayawada. Faced with an embarrassing situation of hardly one or two persons turning up for the para-sailing sports, the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) has shifted the adventure sports to the Rishikonda Beach in Visakhapatnam.The shift was effected a month ago due to a very poor patronage in Vijayawada, according to the APTDC Divisional Manager, S. Suryaprakasa Rao.
A wonderful adventure, quite popular with the Indian navy, the sport first launched in Hyderabad two years ago, involves propelling a person with the help of a rope to over a 200-foot high altitude into the skies in a parachute from a boat with the help of wind velocity generated through a 240 HP motor. After soaring high, the parachute opens up on its own and the person wearing it descends back into the boat. Ironically, Vijayawada was the only city after Hyderabad which was identified by the APTDC for launching the exciting adventure sports in November last year.
But, barely five-months after the launch, the sport has been shifted to Visakhapatnam where the demand is said to be very high. "During the five-month period in Vijayawada, we hardly could perform hardly two-three sorties in a day,'' Mr. Rao said, to justify the decision for shifting the sport to Visakhapatnam. After the successful launch of the sport in Hyderabad, the corporation presumed that it could click very well in Vijayawada too. But the response belied the expectations.
Even though the rate was fixed at only Rs 200 per sortie as an introductory offer as against Rs 250 charged in Hyderabad. But the reduced rates failed to enthuse the denizens of Vijayawada.Para-sailing as a sport is a big draw in Goan beaches, despite being pegged at Rs 900 per sorties. Yet, even a nominal amount of Rs 200 has failed to interest people in Vijayawada, Mr. Rao lamented. According to the corporation, for every sortie it requires five-litres of diesel.
A minimum of 20 sorties per day could alone ensure a break-even cost for the corporation. The para sailing boat along with the parachute was procured at a cost of Rs 30 lakh. But with hardly two or three people turning up every day, there was no point in continuing it here the APTDC feels. In the meantime, there was a demand from the corporation's Visakhapatnam wing for introducing the sport at the Rishikonda Beach.
Four months after the launch in the "steel city'', the corporation claims that on an average it is able to perform over 30-40 sorties every day.Mr. Rao, however, assures that if people in Vijayawada are willing to patronise the sport, the corporation would be, only too willing to bring it back to the city.Vijayawadaites, are you listening?
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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