A day after Chief Minister Oommen Chandy severely criticised the non-starter status of Seaplane service, the state government has initiated steps to renew the project on a war-footing. Wings Aviation - one of the operators of Seaplane Project - has decided to start operations by April 14.
Inviting Seaplane operators, the government has come out with an early bird incentive for those who begin the operations within two months. As per the advertisement given by the Kerala Tourism Infrastructure Ltd (KTIL) on Monday, the government has extended the Early Bird Incentive for operators till April 30.
Operators are also offered free access to waterdromes for one year. Those who begin operations before April 30 will get exclusive government business for two years. Initially, there were five companies, which expressed interest in operating the service, of which, three backed out later.
One of the two firms - Kerala Seaplane Service, under the parent company of Wings Aviation, is all set to begin the service by April 14. The company has already registered itself with the government to operate Seaplane service.
“Earlier we had also sought extension of the early bird offer to a couple of months. Now, we have all the infrastructure ready with us. We have the aircraft ready and the service needs to be floated. Once we get the final nod from the state government, we can start operations. We are planning to launch the service on Vishu,” said Umesh Kamath, managing director, Kerala Seaplane Service. The Seaplane service remained a non-starter even after its launch following various climatic reasons, including heavy monsoon. The project had also faced stiff opposition from the fishermen community who feared it would hit their livelihood and destroy common resources. On Sunday, Chandy had come down heavily on the project, stating that service, inaugurated with high expectations, had turned out to be a damp squib.
“While it was deliberately made a non-starter here, sea planes are as common a sight as canoes in the Maldives,” he said.