Pokhara, September 20
Preparations are going on to resume paragliding in Pokhara after five months of the closure of services.
According to Nepal Airsports Association (NAW) chair Krishna Bhandari, tourism entrepreneurs will resume the service with the government decision to lift the prohibitory order against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have already organised a paragliding safety and awareness programme to resume the service. Similarly, the condition of paragliding devices has been checked,” he says, “All the paragliding companies have successfully conducted test flights before resuming the flights and the resumption is likely in a couple of days.”
Paragliding, known as one of the forms of adventurous tourism, had commercially started in Pokhara in 1999. At present, there are 60 paragliding companies in Pokhara and the number of pilots is 350 including around 15 foreigners.
It has an investment of around one billion rupees while 1,000 are directly employed. The paragliding companies had offered 50-60 per cent discount after the first Covid-19 lockdown and the policy had attracted a quite good number of domestic tourists in Pokhara.
After the significant discount, the service was available at Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 against the previous charge of Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000. The operators have yet to decide the fresh fare for the service, NAW general secretary Balaram Acharya says.
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