Plane service to link Mumbai-Lonavala in 30 minutes

Mehair to start amphibian plane service to Pawana dam

Holiday makers will now be able to take a 30 minute ride to Pawana Dam near Lonavala in an amphibian plane from Juhu airport Mumbai. A road or rail trip to Lonavala can take two hours or even longer.

The service is being launched by Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) with four and nine seater Cessana amphibian planes from next Monday and is priced at Rs 2,999 per person for single journey. It will be a non scheduled service with no fixed departure time.

The company had planned to start a similar service to Aamby Valley, Sahara group township, near Lonavala in March but the plan fizzled following arrest of Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy Sahara. The Aamby valley service was being priced at Rs 5000 per person but the service did not take off.

"The journey from Juhu to Pawana dam will take about 30 minutes. We have facilities like jetty and boats at the lake and have taken all safety and security measures,'' said Siddharth Verma co founder and director of Mehair.

Verma's company has been running an amphibian plane service in Andaman and Nicobar Islands since 2011, is launching the Mumbai-Aamby Valley charter.

This will be the second such service in India and has plans to launch services to Mula Dam (Meherabad/Shirdi), Varasgaon Dam (Lavasa) and Dhom Dam (Panchgani/Mahabaleshwar). There is a plan to start a similar service in Goa.

MEHAIR wants to launch a service within Mumbai to connect Juhu to Girgaum.Nariman Point in down town.