Pvt paragliding schools in Bir-Billing told to shut ops

Tribune News Service

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, March 29

Private schools being run by experienced paragliding pilots in Bir-Billing have been asked by Tourism Department officials to shut shop as no rules are in place in the state to run these.

Those running the schools are alleging that the government has no role in promoting the Bir Billing paragliding site. It was discovered by adventure enthusiasts from the region and a few foreign paragliding pilots, who started doing hand gliding and paragliding here in 1985.

The paragliding pilots, who are running schools in Bir-Billing and are conducting tandem flights for tourists, said that it was due to the efforts of foreign paragliding pilots and locals that Bir-Billing was now among the top 10 paragliding sites of the world. Since the government does not have any rules in place for registering the paragliding schools in the state, experienced pilots having over two decades of experience in paragliding and are world acclaimed are running paragliding schools in Bir. These pilots have trained most of the pilots who are doing paragliding in the state and have promoted Himachal as a paragliding destination in the whole world.

District Tourism Officer (DTO) Kangra, Vinay Dhiman, said that a paragliding pilot lost his life in a mishap recently. On inquiry, it was found that the pilot was taking training from a private school. “We found that the government has not allowed any private paragliding school to operate in the state. We sought clarification from state tourism department whether pilots can run training schools or not. No reply has been received from the government due to which we have decided to close down the paragliding schools,” he said.

Asked if any rules were in place to register paragliding schools in the state, the DTO said at present no rules were in place. He, however, said the government has proposed to open an institute for training paragliding pilots in Bir.

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