NASIR YOUSUFI
SRINAGAR: Known for its beautiful landscape and mesmerizing nature, the world famous Boulevard on the banks of Dal lake has come up with yet another tourist attraction. A multicolored-large sized contraption gliding in the skies hundreds of feet above the surface sends any onlooker into tizzy!
Yes, you have figured it right! Hot Air Balloon hanging mid air, over looking Zabarwan hills is a new adventurist sensation in Srinagar. The endeavor is gaining popularity among locals as well as tourists from other parts of the country. People in droves can be seen booking and waiting for their slots to glide through the air in the balloon.
“We have come to valley for the second time after a gap of about 15 years. It is as beautiful as it used to be. But we have seen this balloon for the first time in Kashmir. As soon as we saw it from hotel room, we decided to take our kids for its ride. My kids are so ex-cited to board the balloon,” says Dr Sidartha Gautam from Delhi, who along with his wife and two kids are waiting for their turn to have a dream ride.
As the balloon has turned into a major tourist attraction, the people associated with tourism are happy with in-creased tourism activity around the place.
Bilal Ahmad, a shikara owner near Zabarwan Park says that the contraption like aerospace has turned into an at-traction in the area. A good number of tourists who take the shikara ride here enquire about the balloon and we ask them to visit the booking counter in-side the park.
“The new adventure has increased their work also,” Ahmad says adding, the adventure has added to tourism ac-tivity in the area.
Run and operated by Highland Excursion India Pvt Limited , a company known for its niche in adventure tourism, the idea of facilitating a unique experience of gliding in hot air balloons to tourists has been conceived by a young entrepreneur, Ifshan Mehraj. Apart from air balloons, young entrepreneur is also successfully operating the raft and para gliding adventures in different parts of the val-ley.
“Earlier we had put the aero balloon on the same spot. But due to some reasons we had to wind it up in 2019. This year, we decided to give a unique experience to adventure enthusiasts around the lake and thus brought a hot air balloon here”, says Ifshan, CEO, High-land Excursions.
The young CEO says that the company plans to start such more ventures in future, as there is an encouraging re-sponse from the people to these activities in the valley.
Tourism authorities have been also supportive and provided all possible support to start the venture. There is a tremendous scope of adventure tourism in Kashmir, as the field still remains untapped, opines Ifshan.
According to Zuhair Hussain, Manager Hot Air Balloon Counter, the company arranges almost 30 trips into air, carrying about more than 100 visitors in mid air daily. There is a good response from the visitors and adventure en-thusiasts as the people need to book their slot sometimes days ahead of actual ride.
While deliberating upon the functioning of the balloon, Zuhair says that the contraption glides into air by means of hot air which is constantly blown into it through gas flames controlled manually. Though 5 to 6 people can be ac-commodated in the basket, we prefer to accommodate only 4 people and a pilot per trip. Zuhair says, the balloon rises about 200 feet from the surface giving a panoramic view of the city to gliders. Adding the company offers the adventure ride for a nominal amount of Rs 750 per head, Zuhair says that the rates are the cheapest ones in the coun-try.
As the balloon gradually rises high into the air, the team who manages it from the ground works hard to ensure the safety and protection of the people aboard the basket. Made from world class fire proof fabric , the balloon is equipped with sophisticated fire extinguishers and a trained pilots.
“It was a remarkable experience to have such a panoramic view of the whole lake and hills. It will stay back very long with me,” ex-claims Naman , a tourist from Gurjrat, after taking a ride in the balloon.
Amidst the increased footfall of tourists this season, the hot air balloon ride is emerging as a major crowd puller in the capital city of Srinagar!