The trial of a nine-seater seaplane was held in Goa by the state tourism department on Saturday.
With the trial, Goa became the second state in the country to avail the services of seaplane, after Maharashtra. It was first started in the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The seaplane will be operated by Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Private Limited (MEHAIR), which will start commercial operations in the tourist destination in coming months.
The plane took off from the airport in Panaji and landed on Mandovi river during the trial.
State tourism minister Dilip Parulekar and Goa Tourism Development Corporation chairman Nilesh Cabral were present for the trial.
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Director of MEHAIR, Siddharth Verma, said that the seaplane services will save government a lot of time since they will not need to spend money on building airports and infrastructure.
"Today, Goa became the third state in the country after Andaman Nicobar and Maharashtra to have sea plane trial landing done and post-monsoon we hope to launch the commercial operations. We are introducing this for the Sesna 20 which is capable of landing and takeoff from water and in runway in the same flight. The purpose of launching it in Goa, the tourism capital of India, is to connect Dabolim airport with the city," said Verma.
Verma also said that it will help connect places with airport to the places that do not have airports.
Chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), Nilesh Cabral, said that GTDC along with Goa tourism will coordinate to provide tourists coming to Goa with various amenities.
"In future we have helicopter services and lots of other services which we will start in Goa. Goa, by itself, is a big destination of tourism and these added attractions will bring in more tourists and the tourists who are coming to Goa will have many things to do in Goa," said Cabral.
GTDC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MEHAIR to launch sea-plane services.
The seaplane is manufactured by American company Sesna Aircraft and has two pilots and nine passenger seats. It can cruise at the speed of 140 nautical miles per hour. It has total endurance of about five and half hours and the range of about 1,200 kilometres (745.6 miles).
