Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday  inaugurated a Heliport at Rampur and said that in a major initiative to attract tourists to the unexplored areas, the State Government was determined to develop a network of heliports to improve air connectivity and to give boost to tourism in the state.

Thakur said that through the relentless efforts for providing helicopter services under UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, the State Government has developed new heliports, adding that work of three heliports, Shimla heliport in State capital near Sanjauli bye pass road, at Baddi in Solan district and at Rampur has been completed and ready for helicopter service operations. In addition, heliport at Kangnidhar (Mandi) was near completion and another heliport was being developed at Manali (DGRE, SASE)

He said the newly constructed heliport at Rampur was the second among five heliports being developed and inaugurated and has been built with a cost of Rs. 3.40 crore and the administrative approval, expenditure sanction and technical sanction is for Rs. 7.38 crore which includes development construction cost and procurement of all equipment and fire tenders etc., which were being done by Pawan Hans. The Chief Minister said that the work of development of Rampur heliport was started in the year 2020 and was completed in August, 2022 in a record time under RCS (Regional Connectivity Scheme) UDAN-II sanctioned by Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India having total area of 12,130 square meters. This heliport has modern facilities like CCTV Security installation, VIP lounge, parking, OPS and Fire Station, security hut, UG tank, watch tower, perimeter fencing illumination, reception counter, heliport manager office, ticket counter etc.

Thakur said the flight services in Shimla- Rampur-Shimla route were started in December 2021 and flights were operating thrice a week. At present, per passenger the one way fare on this route was Rs. 3275, he added.

He said that recently the State Government has also sent a proposal to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India to extend the helicopter service for connecting Reckong Peo in District Kinnaur and Chamba under UDAN scheme to provide connectivity to the remote tribal areas of the state.

At present, there were 64 helipads and 38 new helipads were being developed by the State Government.