Paragliding site to come up in Mandi

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, October 29

The Himachal government is planning to develop Spainidhar, under the Seraj Assembly segment of Mandi district, for paragliding activities. The process has already been started by the Tourism Department.

A technical committee of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, and Himachal Pradesh Tourism Department has inspected the site at Spainidhar and found it suitable for paragliding activity.

Spainidhar found suitable

• A technical committee of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, and HP Tourism Department inspected the site at Spainidhar and found it suitable for paragliding activity.
• At present, there is not even a single site notified in Mandi district for such activities.
• The untouched tourist destinations of Spainidhar, Shetadhar and Janjehli are being developed to attract more tourists to the district

Pankaj Sharma, deputy director of the Tourism and Civil Aviation Department, Mandi, said as

per the direction of the state government, the Tourism Department was planning to promote adventure sports activities in Mandi district to attract more tourists in the near future.

“Recently, a technical committee, consisting of Col Neeraj Rana, Director, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Mountaineering Institute, Manali; TR Dhiman, Forest Officer, Gohar; and officials of the Revenue and Tourism Department, visited the site at Spainidhar to inspect whether

it was suitable for paragliding or not. The committee found the ‘landing’ and ‘take off’ sites in the courtyard perfectly suitable for paragliding,” he remarked.

“The Tourism Department has sent its proposal to the government for final approval. The department has trained

many youth for paragliding in Mandi district.

With the availability of suitable sites for the activity, the employment opportunities for the youth will increase further,” said Sharma.

“Currently, these youths are forced to move out of the district, to Manali in Kullu district or Bir Billing in Kangra district, in search of work. With the availability of adventure sports in Mandi, they will be able to get self-employment opportunity at their doorstep,” he maintained.

“As soon as the state government will give its approval for the purpose, the adventure tourism and sports activities will start here,” he said.

Sharma said at present, there was not even a single site notified in Mandi district for paragliding activity for tourists.

The untouched tourist destinations of Spainidhar, Shetadhar and Janjehli were being developed to attract more tourists here to the district in the coming days.