For the second consecutive year, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board will co-organise the Uttarakhand adventure car rally with the Shimla-based motorsport club Himalayan Motorsport. The aim of this event slated to be held next month is to bring back Uttarakhand on the tourism map by assuring visitors about improvement in the condition of infrastructure post the June 2013 disaster.
The second Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will run from February 2 to 4. State Tourism secretary Umakant Panwar said motorsport is a valuable addition to Uttarakhand’s adventure portfolio, targeted at mid and high-end tourists. “The rally will showcase to the world that the roads in the sState are great. The rally will pass by some of our major tourism hotspots like winter sports destination Auli, and Ramnagar, which flanks the Corbett national park,” he said.
According to the event organisers, the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will have 35 teams driving cars and SUVs, going across about 1,000 kilometers in the State. Each team will comprise a driver and a navigator. In order to ensure that there are no traffic disruptions, the rally will follow the Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) format. This is the sober form of motorsport that allows competitors to go slow in thickly populated areas, and stick to specified speed limits at all times.
The car rally will begin from Dehradun and move via Devprayag, Karnprayag, Rudraprayag and Nandprayag to Auli. On day two, the rally will come down from Auli to Ramnagar and will end at Dehradun on day three. President of the event organiser Himalayan Motorsport, Vijay Parmar said that after the internationally popular Himalayan Rally, motorsport has been re-started in Uttarakhand on a small scale.
"Motorsport has great potential to grow in Uttarakhand, and will showcase its excellent tourism destinations nationally and internationally. The State has a good network of roads while more roads are being constructed in picturesque locales," he said.