Float and fly: Maharashtra gets its first Seaplane

Sumit Mullick, Additional Chief Secretary and Chief Protocol Officer, Maharashtra with Jagdish Patil, Managing Director, MTDC at the launch of the seaplane service at Juhu Aerodrome, Mumbai.

Jagdish Patil, Managing Director, MTDC waves to launch the seaplane services. 

The seaplane service is being launched with a Cessna 206 Amphibian. Another Cessna 208 Amphibian aircraft will be inducted by April 2014. They can carry a maximum of four and nine passengers respectively

In the first phase, the seaplanes will fly to destinations like Aamby Valley lake, Mula Dam (Meherabad/Shirdi), Pawna Dam (Lonavla), Varasgaon Dam (Lavasa) and Dhoom Dam (Panchgani/Mahabaleshwar).

The four-seater Cessna 206 amphibian.

"We want to charge customers affordable rates We plan to charge an inaugural price of Rs. 750 for our service, which will complete the journey in less than ten minutes," says Siddharth Verma, Director and Co-Founder MEHAIR.

The Seaplane project was initiated by MTDC with private aviation company, MEHAIR.

Test flights were held in December 2013 when the amphibians smoothly landed and took off from Aamby Valley Lake.

The first flight took off from Juhu Aeordome for Aamby Valley.

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) recently launched the state's first seaplane service in Mumbai.

MEHAIR has been operating similar seaplane services in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands since January 2011, providing inter-island connectivity. Seaplanes require either a 1-km long airstrip or a water body, one km long and at least 10 feet deep.