TAKE-OFF FROM DABOLIM FOR NOW
Says GTDC chairman Nilesh Cabral, we are not keeping the heli-tourism rides on hold from now they will be taking place from the Dabolim airport
* He adds, later when we find other locations we will continue the services from there
* According to Cabral who is also a BJP MLA, tourism in Goa is stagnant because everything is being opposed
* For how long can natural beauty and temples and churches keep drawing in people? he asks
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We have decided to keep the helicopter tourism service on hold. Other locations to land the helicopters will be explored
- Laxmikant Parsekar, Chief Minister
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PANCHAYAT GIVES BOOST
TO HELI-TOURISM STIR
It was a day of high drama as the former MLA along with the Candolim Sarpanch Sandra Fialho and her deputy and seven others were detained by Calangute Police on charges of obstructing the helicopter service at Aguada plateau. All 10 were later released with a warning not to gather at the site again. >> See page 3
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PANAJI: Just a day after it began, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar in a surprise move, apparently under pressure from his own MLA Michael Lobo, has put helicopter joyrides and flights at Aguada helipad on hold, looking for other locations.
“We have decided to keep the helicopter tourism service on hold. Other locations to land the helicopters will be explored,” said Parsekar while he emerged after Michael Lobo called on him to protest heli-tourism and the government’s moves to start the service from Aguada helipad.
The decision to start heli-tourism had sparked a war of words between Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and Chairman of the GTDC Nilesh Cabral, who is also a BJP MLA.
The chief minister didn’t elaborate on what made him change his mind.
Parsekar’s decision comes a day after the Tourism Department insisted that its plans for heli-tourism were on and that despite protests they would go ahead.
However, the two young MLAs have accused each other of killing Goa’s tourism industry with their respective plans.
“They want to have these helicopter tourism rides at the cost of local tourism industry. The people who are going to go by these rides are cheap Indian tourists. If they go by the helicopter rides they will not go on the jet skis. It will affect local businesses,” Lobo said adding that the company will be taking a huge bite into the money that is being spent by tourists in Calangute.
“They want to piggyback on the tourists who visit the beach belt. They should focus on keeping the beaches clean and getting back the European tourists who have stopped coming to Goa,” he said.
“Nobody is going to come to Goa for helicopter rides. They come because Goa is Goa and they then might go for a helicopter ride,” he said.
On the other hand, Cabral deeply is disturbed by the turn of events. “He (Michael Lobo) is putting (petty) politics before State interest. On one hand, he says that Goa should bring in high-end tourists and not the 'chaddi-banian' tourists. From where are these tourists going to come? It is these people who are destroying tourism in the State. If Tourism in Goa is stagnant it is because everything is being opposed,” Cabral said.
“Just because the elections are coming some people are opposing. Every three or four days there used to be a helicopter landing there by some person or the other,” he said.
“Indians too have a lot of money to spend. How will quality tourists come if there is nothing to offer them. For how long can natural beauty and temples and churches keep drawing in people? Will the young people come for this or for an experience,” he asked.
“We are not keeping the heli tourism rides on hold from now they will be taking place from the Dabolim airport and later when we find other locations we will continue the services from there,” he added.
