Adventure tourism to get a push

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, June 21

The Adventure Race expedition conducted by the Air Warriors of the Indian Air Force in collaboration with the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) concluded with river rafting as the last event in Kullu yesterday. The rafting event was flagged off by Gopal Krishan Mahant, an HPTDC official.

Dinesh Malhotra, Managing Director, HPTDC, said there was vast potential for adventure tourism in the state and the corporation was exploring all the possibilities in this direction.

The 19-member squad of Air Warriors participated in a multi-disciplinary adventure sporting activity comprising mountain biking, para-sailing and trekking before it ended with river rafting at Kullu today, he said.

The expedition started with sky-diving event at Jubber Hatti airport near Shimla on June 12. The team participated in mountain biking from the The Ridge in Shimla to Tattapani. It reached Jogindernagar in Mandi district via Karsog and Gohar. The team undertook para-gliding at the world famous Bir-Billing site in Kangra. While two Air Warrior pilots took solo flights, the others were part of tandem flights. This was followed by a two-day trek to Beas Kund in Solang Valley and river rafting on Pirdi-Jhiri stretch of Beas river.