Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to arrive in Ahmedabad on October 30th and stay overnight at the Governor’s house in Gandhinagar. Since he could not come on September 17th, he is likely to visit his mother Hiraba to take her blessings.
He will take off in a seaplane from Sabarmati riverfront on October 31st to take part in the National Unity parade at Kevadia colony of the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada river.
Understandably and more importantly, the ruling BJP would try to draw political mileage from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, though Modi would not be able to address an election rally in view of the coronavirus pandemic. There has been no official communication from the Prime Minister’s office as yet about his itinerary.
However, on October 9th, a meeting was held in Gandhinagar to review the preparations for Prime Minister’s probable visit. The meeting was attended by top officials of the home department, the police and the CRPF.
Final touches to the seaplane project in Ahmedabad:
The Sabarmati river is going to be an important place in the ambitious seaplane project. Preparations are afoot for the landing of the seaplane near the Ambedkar Bridge at the Vasana barrage. Passersby on the bridge are deriving the pleasure of viewing the preparations that are on for the arrival of the seaplane.
Personnel of the Ahmedabad Municipal Commission, seem to have shed the lethargy they had been showing in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, have suddenly become hyperactive supervising the beautification of seaplane’s landing site.
Ambedkar bridge, where the jetty of the seaplane is located, has also been painted afresh. The biodiversity park of the civic body too is being decked up. The takeoff and landing points for the seaplane are being demarcated to facilitate the pilots. Floating markers for the landing and take-off points have also been put in place.
Seaplane is a matter of great curiosity not only for the residents of Ahmedabad but also for the citizens of the country because this is for the first time seaplane service is going to be introduced on October 31st. Director-General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India has already given permission for the seaplane to land not only in Sabarmati river, Narmada dam reservoir, Dharoi dam reservoir and the Tapi river where water aerodromes would be set up.
Some interesting facts about seaplane:
The seaplane will make its first trip on the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel on October 31st from the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad to the Statue of University on the Narmada river. Two seaplanes are being imported for this purpose from Canada. The seaplanes are expected to arrive by October 20. The 18 seater seaplane would be accompanied by two pilots and two crew members who would remain here for six months to train the Indian pilots.
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Purpose of seaplane service:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier disclosed that the main purpose of introducing seaplane service is to promote tourism. Seaplane service is part of developing waterways. It takes five hours to go to the Kevadia colony from Ahmedabad by road but the travel time would be just 45 minutes if one goes by the seaplane to cover a distance of 220 km.
The 18-seater seaplane has the capacity to carry 14 passengers. The first flight will take off at 8 in the morning. Initially, seaplane would have non-scheduled flights. If the response of tourists is good, it would be made a scheduled flight in about a year.
Initially, the seaplane service will be between Ahmedabad and Kevadia colony but there are plans to introduce other routes in 2021. The second planned route is from Sabarmati riverfront to Shetrunji dam in Bhavnagar. The route has already received clearance. The third planned route is from Ahmedabad to Dharoi dam to start from 2022. All these are part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project for which necessary paperwork has already begun. In all 16 such projects have been selected in the country of which 4 are in Gujarat.
Seaplane is one of the dream projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
The second route planned is from Ahmedabad to Shetrunji dam of Palitana in Bhavnagar district. The project map for this 250 km route is being prepared. Jetties at both ends of the route would be set up. The success of these routes is largely dependent on the importance of religious places sought to be connected by the seaplane service.
The other places selected for the waterways project include those in Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Assam. Like the Ahmedabad-Kevadia route, the work on the first phase has begun on the Chilka lake in Odisha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had demonstrated to the people of Gujarat on December 12th, 2017 that his dream project of the seaplane as a gift to the tourism sector is feasible.
On this day he had flown from Sabarmati river to the Dharoi dam in Mehsana district from where he had gone to Ambaji to have a darshan of the Goddess Ambaji. He had announced at that time that he will come again to Ahmedabad by seaplane.
Vadodara airport director Charan Singh was then appointed mentor of this project. State’s tourism secretary S J Hyder too is playing an important role in this project. Airport directors of Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar have also been assigned the responsibility of developing water aerodromes at Narmada, Sabarmati river, Dharoi dam and Shetrunjay dam.
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Seaplane is no more a novel subject for the people thanks to much discussion about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project. Since the seaplane is going to be introduced officially from October 31st, let us know some important facts about it.
The jetty on Sabarmati river has been chained on all its four sides so that its level can be adjusted to the water level of the river in which water from the Narmada dam is being fed.
A minimum depth of six feet is needed for the seaplane to take off and land on the water. The seaplane needs at least 900 metres of water surface to land and take off.
According to the guideline of Director General of Civil Aviation, two engines are required for a commercial airline’s plane and one engine for a chartered plane. A minimum of two acres of land is needed for setting up the terminal building and parking. Moreover, permission is also required from various other departments. There is a plan to have four flights each way between Ahmedabad and Kevadia colony daily.
The plane can have a seating capacity to carry 14 or 19 passengers. The airport building terminal and watchtower are planned to be built on the upper promenade of the Sabarmati riverfront. However, the administration is trying to wave off such mandatory requirements for the inaugural flight of the seaplane on October 31st.
There will be parking space for vehicles while to connect with the floating jetty a bridge has already been constructed which will connect the seaplane and the jetty on the same water level. Until the seaplane authority does not have its own fire fighting system, including boat, the fire brigade department of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will provide the fire fighting and rescue boat services.
This is how seaplane service started:
Gujaratis who live abroad or frequently visit foreign countries know seaplanes as flying boats because a part of the plane is of the shape of a boat. The first seaplane landed in the water in 1911. American engineer Glen H Curtis had built the first seaplane. Seaplanes were first used in the First World War and after the war ended it was used for commercial purpose.
The seaplane was also used in the Second World War but on a limited scale. At the end of the Second World War, there were modifications in the design to enable the plane to land on snow-covered land, marshy land and grassland.
Problems encountered at the initial stages:
Preparations have been going on for a long time in Kevadia colony where the seaplane from Ahmedabad is going to land in the Narmada dam reservoir. There are crocodiles in reservoir number three which has been chosen for the seaplane. The reservoir was home to over 300 crocodiles.
The administration had to launch a special drive to free the reservoir from crocodiles. The link channel of reservoir number three has been covered by a net to prevent crocodiles from entering. District collector, I K Patel issued a public notification to divert vehicular traffic between September 19th and 21st. The forest department caught the crocodiles using cages and shifted them to the main reservoir.
As happens in major projects, there were obstacles in this project too. At one stage beginning of this year, there was talk of cancelling the project. The seaplane service from Surat to Kevadia colony was dropped because one could not find 1500 metres for landing at that altitude. Spicejet had carried out a survey for this purpose.
Opposition to the project
An important place of the seaplane project is also the Shetrunji dam near which one of the biggest pilgrimage centre of the Jains is located. The project has hurt the feelings of members of the Jain community who are believers of non-violence.
The Jain community members feel that since the project is to promote tourism, a large number of tourists from across the world would use the seaplane causing destruction of a living organism, especially aquatic animals and damage to the Shetrunji hill.
Leaders of the Jain community want the landing site to be shifted from the Shetrunji dam to the Bhavnagar airport. This year the reservoir of Shetrunji dam is full of water because of heavy rain. It remains to be seen how much impact of the opposition from the Jain community would have on the seaplane project.
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