Mehair seaplane services may take off in August

The much-awaited seaplane services that were to be launched by Mehair from the mainland here may take off in August after two deferments as the operator is likely to receive the nod from the Maharashtra government by this month-end.
Maritime Energy Heli Air Services (Mehair) had put off the launch of the maiden services twice in the past.
On the first occasion, it postponed the launch of the service to Aamby Valley with the arrest of Sahara chief Subrata Roy, and second time due to its failure to secure clearance from the state irrigation department to commence operations to Mula and Pawana dams.

"We are hopeful of getting the necessary approvals from the state government by this month-end. Once approvals are in place, we can immediately commence our operations to Mula and Pawana Dams in August," Mehair Director and Co-founder Siddharth Verma told PTI here.
He said the company would also be launching the services to Dhoom dam in Mahabaleshwar, but is currently awaiting DGCA clearance, which it expects to receive this month itself. The company has already received irrigation department's approval to launch services to this dam.
Mehair, which already has a four-seater Cessna 206 in its fleet, had recently brought into Mumbai a nine-seater Cessna 208A aircraft.

"Although our soft launch was done with a smaller Cessna 206 aircraft, we want to get a larger plane for the Maharashtra operations. This aircraft had been operating in Andaman & Nicobar islands," he said.
The company has also planned to launch services to Varasgaon and Gangapur dams in phases.
Mehair recently received the go-ahead from the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) for undertaking a seaplane operation at Girgaum Chowpatty.