Kolkata to DIgha - 45-minutes by chopper, fare Rs 2000

West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has flagged off a Calcutta-Digha weekly helicopter service. The fight will take 45-minutes and the fare has been pegged at Rs 2000. However, a resident in the heart of Kolkata, the Bengal capital, would have to travel an hour and a half to reach the Behala airstrip from where the chopper would take off!
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 24 December 2015.

A seven-seater Pawan Hans chopper would be taking off every Saturday and reach Digha in 45 minutes. However, the total travel time would be around two hours and fifteen minutes for a person who is staying in central Kolkata while, Digha by road takes a little more than three hours.
The time difference is approximately an hour but the pocket pinch differs significantly. The reason is simple - a one-way chopper ride comes to Rs 2,000 per passenger whereas a one-way air-conditioned bus ticket from Esplanade to Digha costs only Rs 300. Trains from Howrah reach Digha in a little over three hours and, in it, an AC chair car on the Tamralipta Express comes for Rs 370.
Obviously, a chopper service from Kolkata to Digha may not be a profitable proposition. Helicopter services had been started in other parts of West Bengal like in Cooch Behar and Bolpur, but had to be discontinued within a few months because of lack of passengers.
As to Bolpur, the service between Calcutta and Bolpur had to be terminated because the helipad is 4-Km away from the Birbhum town and passengers had to hire a car to reach the helipad.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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