Dehradun (Uttarakhand): The heli services for Kedarnath pilgrims in Uttarakhand have been affected due to the operations of the Cargo helicopter Chinook of the Indian Air Force during the ongoing Kedarnath reconstruction work, sources said on Saturday. The Chinook cargo helicopter of the IAF has been playing a key role in carrying the heavy goods for the ongoing second phase of Kedarnath reconstruction.
While the Chinook operations are considered to be crucial in the reconstruction work, the operations have hit the Kedarnath devotees. Sources said that the heli services for the Kedarnath devotees remain affected during morning and evening time with no chopper allowed to operate owing to the flight of the Chinook helicopter during this time.
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The devotees to and fro Kedarnath and Gauchar have to wait for more than 2 hours until the Chinook helicopter completes the cargo flights, sources said.
Dozens of chopper flights canceled: Sources said that the Chinook helicopter of the IAF flies between 6 am to 8 am for the cargo services. However, owing to the Chinook operations, flights of about 48 helicopters carrying the Kedarnath pilgrims are being canceled on a daily basis, sources said. According to sources, a total of 240 devotees are being affected due to the cancellation of the heli services 48 flights daily.
Devotees have said that owing to the lack of chopper services, they have to either travel on foot. Some of the elderly pilgrims have been forced to cancel their pilgrimage due to the lack of heli services.
192 flights canceled in 4 days: A total of 192 flights have been canceled in 4 days due to Chinook operations as per sources forcing as many as 960 pilgrims to cancel bookings. Most of these passengers are from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Jitendra, an officer of the District Disaster Management Department, said that the services will remain to be affected till Monday.
