More than 100 people including public representatives, public servants and their family members along with tourists undertook paragliding free of cost at Bhimtal Jungalia village as part of the Nainital winter carnival here on Tuesday. A considerable number of visitors and locals had converged at the village to enjoy free paragliding which was formally inaugurated by Bhimtal MlA Dan Singh Bhandari along with Nainital district magistrate Deepak Rawat and senior superintendent of police Sweety Agrawal.
Speaking on the occasion, the MlA said that introducing paragliding here is an appreciable step of the administration. This will facilitate employment for the people while also increasing the number of tourists arriving here. There is considerable scope for paragliding in this area along with Bhimtal and Naukuchiatal. This will also provide a fillip to rural tourism, added the MlA.
The DM and chief coordinator of the carnival, Deepak Rawat said that paragliding has been going on at Bhimtal and Naukuchiatal for quite some time now. Stating that there is considerable scope for paragliding in Bhimtal Jungalia, he said that an attempt will be made to identify areas for paragliding in Mukteshwar and Bhawali. He further said that paragliding will encourage rural tourism which in turn would facilitate local area development and livelihood. Declaring that such adventure tourism events will be organised throughout the year, Rawat said that these will be included in the carnival every year to attract tourists from across India and abroad to the region throughout the year.
Earlier, the DM's wife Vijeta Rawat took the first paragliding flight here. After the DM's wife, the local MlA Dan Singh Bhandari, SSP Sweety Agarwal, sub divisional magistrate Ashish Chauhan, SDM Rakesh Tiwari, additional district information officer Govind Singh Bisht, local media persons, tourists and locals enjoyed paragliding which continued till the evening.
Various Panchayat representatives, departmental officials, representatives of business associations and local residents were also among those present on the occasion.
