From September 1, ticket bookings for helicopter services on the Char Dham circuit will be done through the website of Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN). This information was provided by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) and Tourism secretary Dilip Jawalkar, after a meeting with representatives of aviation companies.

CEO Jawalkar said, “The decision has been taken for facilitating transparency in the booking of tickets for helicopter services. The booking will be done in both online and offline mediums. Seventy per cent of the tickets will be booked online and 30 per cent will be booked offline. After one week we will take a review meeting of the new system.”

He further added, “We have developed a software for charter booking, for which a trial run will be done soon.”

After the meeting with aviation company representatives, Jawalkar held a meeting with prominent travel operators and informed them about the decision to facilitate helicopter ticket bookings through the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam. He said that this decision has been taken to prevent black marketing of tickets, provide same level of facility to all travelers, benefit the local stakeholders and make the booking process transparent.

It is pertinent to mention that during the Yatra season in 2018 several allegations of black marketing of tickets were levelled against the private aviation companies providing helicopter services on the Char Dham route. This year also, seven cases have been registered against aviation companies and alleged agents so far. The UCADA CEO had earlier also sent a letter asking for the booking details from aviation companies after receiving complaints of black marketing of ticketing from visitors.