The Paragliding Festival is being organised by the Tourism and Civil Aviation department of Sikkim government in association with Paragliding Association of India (PAI) and Sikkim Paragliding Adventure Sports Co-operative Society Limited, he said.
Around 60 Indian and international paragliding pilots are expected to participate in the festival, which includes events like Free Flying event, Spot Landing contest, Acro Show, Tandem Flights and Seminar on Paragliding for students, youth and cultural programmes, the minister said.
The festival will have more than 35 paragliding pilots from Sikkim, of which 4 have already participated at the international level. The festival is being organized by the state mainly to encourage these local pilots and for their bright future.
Tourism and Civil Aviation secretary of Sikkim, Nalini G Pradhan said that the festival will also help to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the state.
PAI general secretary Manoj Roy mentioned that the main idea of the festival is to promote paragliding along with local culture and art of the state.
Roy informed that the first PAI annual paragliding festival was held at Kamshet, Maharastra last year and this time Gangtok has been chosen for the second edition of the festival due to encouraging responses and cooperation received from the state government and local pilots.
