By IANS,
Agartala : The Tripura government Friday launched a helicopter service to give Durga Puja revelers an aerial view of the celebrations in and around this state capital, an official said.
The service, being operated by state-owned Tripura Road Transport Corporation (TRTC), will continue till Monday, the last day of the festivities.
“For fare for the 25-minute flight will be Rs.800 for adults and Rs.600 for children below 12 years,” TRTC managing director Rabindra Reang said.
“The flights would be conducted in eight-seater choppers of Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd (PHHL). They were also conducted during Duga Puja last year.”
The fare is subsidised by the central and state government.
Pawan Hans, India’s lone state-owned helicopter company, has been operating for the past 11 years in the interior areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, with the union home ministry subsidising fares by up to 75 percent.
The security forces have intensified their vigil to ensure safety during five-day festival, which began Thursday with the ‘Bodhan’ – welcoming the Godess Durga and her children.
Amids threat of heavy rains and the cyclonic storm, men, women and children thronged the puja pandals since Thursday.
“Apart from the Border Security Force (BSF), additional security posts have also been set up along the border villages to maintain a close watch on the India-Bangladesh border to prevent any trans-border movement, and to ensure the festival is free of any untoward incident,” Inspector General of Police Nepal Das told reporters here.
“Equipped with sophisticated arms and binoculars, (counter insurgency trained) Tripura State Rifles (TSR), and other security personnel were positioned in several tall watch-towers,” Das told IANS Thursday.
Besides separate anti-sabotage troops, bomb detection, disposal and sniffer dog squads, over 20,000 security personnel have been deployed across Tripura to maintain peace during the celebration.
The police official said that anti-insurgency operations in vulnerable areas of the state have also been stepped up by the district police, TSR, Assam Rifles and BSF through the deployment of additional forces.