The Uttarakhand government has planned a series of intrastate air connectivity between different hill towns for the tourists and local public in coming days.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, on Thursday, announced new air services for Yamunotri and Joshiyada hill towns in Uttarkashi and Gauchar in Chamoli as he launched the sixth intrastate air service from Dehradun to Almora.

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Inaugurating the newly-constructed ‘passengers terminal’ at Sahastradhara Heliport in Dehradun, Dhami set off the much-awaited Dehradun-Almora Heli Service for the general public that will operate six days a week.

The chief minister also announced air services from Dehradun to three new hill towns of the Garhwal region, Yamunotri, Gauchar, and Joshiyada. These services will be operated under the Chief Minister’s Udan Khatola Scheme of Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) with the help of the Centre to increase air connectivity and services in rural hill areas of the state.

Notably, the UCADA is already running air services from Dehradun to Chinyalisaur and Srinagar in the Garhwal and Munsiyari, Pithoragarh, and Haldwani in the Kumaon regions.

“The state government has been trying for this air service for a long time and today, Sahastradhara helipad has also been expanded in Dehradun. Even before the launch of Almora-Dehradun air connectivity, heli services for Chinyalisaur, Gauchar, Munsiyari, Srinagar, Haldwani, and Pithoragarh are operational in Uttarakhand,” Dhami said.

The chief minister said the heli service between Dehradun and Almora and other hill towns would, on the one hand, promote tourism, economy, employment, and self-employment while on the other, the wider air connectivity would help women groups in the state get easy and fast access to the market for the goods manufactured by them on the other.

According to Dhami, intra-town air services in the hills will bring positive changes in the lives of the rural population as well. He said the Dehradun-Almora heli service, along with a series of other services, will, in the future, help tourists reach directly one of the central points and oldest hill towns in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.

He assured that the intrastate air connectivity would expand further in Uttarakhand hills in the coming days.

The Uttarakhand chief minister stressed “Under the ‘Udaan’ Scheme the Central and state governments will provide every facility to the pilgrims and tourists in the coming days.

“Our air service operated under ‘Udaan’ will have a big role in this. We are also trying to expand and transform Jolly Grant Domestic Airport Dehradun as an international airport. New terminals have already been inaugurated there. Today air services are running from Jolly Grant to all the major cities of the country,” he said.

Apart from this, more than 800 acres of land have been transferred to the Civil Aviation Ministry for the expansion of the Pantnagar Airport as well, he added.