Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Apr 17: While Helicopter Service is available for almost all remote Islands, Shaheed Dweep mostly remains neglected in the matter of Helicopter connectivity.
Since the last several years no helicopter has been scheduled for Shaheed Dweep, even when repeated demands have been raised in different platforms by the public and grassroot leaders.
“A lot of senior citizens, who can’t travel by ferries, would prefer a journey to Port Blair for various medical, officials and legal work. Due to the absence of any helicopter service at present for Shaheed Dweep these people are not able to visit Port Blair,” alleged a resident of Shaheed Dweep.
Other than this, Helicopter service is also necessary for high value tourists and business owners, who pump money in Shaheed Dweep’s local economy and hence absence of helicopter service for Shaheed Dweep has now become a hurdle for the growth of Shaheed Dweep.
“Helicopter service is always time saving and convenient for the public and when people of other Islands are getting this benefit why residents of Shaheed Dweep have been kept deprived from such service?” asked another resident of Shaheed Dweep.
According to Islanders, a fully functional Helipad is present at Sheheed Dweep but as no helicopter is scheduled for Shaheed Dweep the Helipad is now in pathetic shape and in next few years the Helipad will become fully unsuitable for the landing of helicopters, even in case of emergency like VVIP visit and Medical evacuation.
One can see tall grasses on the helipad of Shaheed Dweep, which sends a wrong signal among the visiting tourists.
Leaving the helipad of Shaheed Dweep at the mercy of elements, is nothing but a gross wastage of tax-payers’ money.
Residents of Shaheed Dweep are now demanding to schedule helicopter service for Shaheed Dweep for atleast twice a week and to give adequate publicity regarding this so that people of Shaheed Dweep and tourists can make use of such service.
