Adrenaline alert

Jamshedpur, July 15: Adventure junkies in the steel city can now challenge a monsoon-charged river with a raft.

The swollen Subernarekha — with waves and currents — makes it the perfect choice for river rafting, feel entrepreneurs of Odyssey Wonders. After paragliding, paintball and the National Games Carnival organised jointly with Jharkhand tourism department, the company that prides itself on giving offbeat entertainment solutions, wants to start river rafting on a 30km stretch from Chandil dam.

Founded in 2010 by three XLRI graduates — Chandan Kumar Thakur, Prativa Gupta and Shadab Akhtar — the company has recently applied for a no-objection certificate from the state tourism department for river rafting. They will also collaborate with the forest department since most of the areas concerned fall under its jurisdiction.

“Rafting is very popular in Rishikesh and Manali. Since we have the opportunity in Jharkhand, at least in the monsoon, we want to share it with adventure sports enthusiasts and have applied for registration,” said Chandan.

“It is mandatory that the private company registers itself with the state and takes prior approval for any kind of adventure tourism,” said Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation managing director Siddharth Tripathy.

While formalities are underway, the young entrepreneurs are waiting for the clouds to open up and the water level to rise.

The company will have trained and skilled volunteers from National Institute of Mountaineering to assist tourists. It also bought gear such includes multi-layered rafts, ropes, helmets and life jackets.

“We will extend our support to Odyssey Wonders as it will help increase tourist traffic to the state. The stretch of the river where they have planned to start rafting is mostly under the state wildlife division. This is a good exposure for tourism in our state during monsoon,” said A.T. Mishra, DFO, wildlife division, Ranchi.