In a significant judgement, the Uttarakhand High Court has quashed a petition seeking ban on releasing tenders for helicopter services for Char Dham yatris. After the court order, the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) has decided to open the technical bid for the Badrinath, Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib helicopter services on Thursday.
In the hearing which was held in HC on the day, the counsels of state government, UCADA and helicopter companies said that the petitioner ( R D group) has no right to file the petition as he had not participated in the tender process. They argued that the permission for four new helipads apart from existing 14 was given due to the construction of all weather road as road construction work could have affected the Helicopter services. The state government had recently invited bids from non scheduled operators for providing Heli services to these shrines. The Dehradun based R D Company had challenged the tender process.
