Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, along with Sports Minister Dinesh Aggrawal and Tourism Minister Amrita Rawat, flagged off the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally from Garhi cant in Dehradun on Saturday.
A total of 35 teams are participating in the rally being held from December 21 to 24. It is being organised to inspire confidence among tourists that the roads in the State are good and smooth, and Uttarkhand is back on rails as a premier tourism destination. Some bureaucrats from the State and the Centre, the local youth and champion TSD rallyists from various parts of the country were also taking part in the rally.
Bahuguna announced a prize of Rs 5 lakh for the winner of the rally, Rs 3 lakh for the first runner-up and Rs 2 lakh for the second runner-up. He also announced a prize of Rs 1 lakh for the all-women’s team that scores highest at the rally. In his address, the CM said it was a matter of pride for Uttarakhand that some senior IAS and IPS officials of the State and the Centre are taking part in the rally to strengthen the message of normalcy in the State.
Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will cover about 850 km on the mountains and plains in the State. The rally route will touch some of the favourite tourism attractions in Uttarakhand. These include Shivpuri for white water rafting, the ski resort at Auli, and Garjiya on the periphery of the Jim Corbett Park. Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Amrita Rawat said that by going past these tourism hot spots of Uttarakhand, the rally will spread the message nationally and internationally that the State is once again the ‘eco-adventure tourism destination’ for skiing, white-water rafting, wildlife photography, and motorsport.
Sports Minister Dinesh Aggarwal said that 13 teams of the youth and motorsport lovers of Uttarakhand are taking part in the rally. Dehradun Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam is participating in the rally with team-mate Madhukar Naik, IAS. Naik is the Private Secretary to Union Minister of Social Justice Balram Naik.
Dehrandun Deputy Commissioner Customs and Central Excise Raghvendra Pal Singh is participating in the rally with Manish Aggarwal, IPS and Darpan Amrawanshi, an IRS officer B Sreenivas Kumar, Joint Commissioner Income Tax, Delhi, is participating in the rally too. Capt Devendra Kumar Sachan, Chief Pilot of the Uttarakhand Government, is participating in the rally with team-mate lokesh lohia, a major industrialist of the State.
The rally is being organised by Himalayan Motorsport, the premier Shimla-based motorsport club which organises the world-famous rally — the Raid De Himalaya. Rally Director Vijay Parmar said it was a full house at the rally, with the 35 teams eagerly waiting to take off. The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally is supported by Maruti Suzuki and JK Tyres. On December 22, the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will begin early morning from Dehradun.
It will go via Rishikesh, Shivpuri, Dev Prayag, Rudra Prayag, Karan Prayag, Chamoli and Joshimath to end at the ski resort at Auli. The rallyists will cover about 300 kilometres on the first day of the event. The route from Dehradun to Shivpuri and beyond features some of the most popular stretches in the world for white water rafting.
On Day 2, the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will come down from Auli to Karan Prayag. It will then proceed towards Chaukhutiya and Kumerian to reach Garjiya on the east of Jim Corbett Park. On Day 2, the rally will cover about 280 kilometres of country roads. On Day 3, the rally will go across some of the most picturesque roads in the State via Nainidhada and Kotdwar to culminate at Paryatan Bhawan, Dehradun. The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally is authorised by the Federation of Motorsport Clubs of India (FMSCI).
The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will follow the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) format. This is the sober form of motorsport that allows competitors to go slow in populous areas, and stick to specified speed limits at all times. Through the rally, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board hopes to raise further resources to assist those affected by the floods. The rally is open to any brand or model of automobile. SUVs and cars will fight for top honours in their own categories respectively.