Bhubaneswar, May 23: Jhalak Kumar, a professional photographer had never had the experience of shooting a video at aheight of 200 metres. But his dream came true with Fun-ride, a paramotor trike company, offering him a test ride before its official launch here today.
"I was thrilled when the pilot took me 200 metres above the ground and enabled me to have a complete aerial view of Jatni and other suburban areas of Bhuba-neswar. I was floating in the air and shooting the surroundings for about 15 minutes," said Kumar, adding that one could get a clear picture of Barunei hill and Tapang hills stone crushing units from above.
Baldev Biswal, the owner of a local event management company, has launched Fun-ride.
"From tomorrow morning, we will offer paramotor trike rides for everybody. Today, we had a plan to take the people to the sky. But we were forced to defer our plan after hearing a thunderstorm alert," said Biswal.
On what made him think of introducing paramotor trike in Odisha for the first time, Biswal said: " Last year, I went to Goa and rode the fun ride there. Paramotor trike was a huge hit there. From that point of time, I had been thinking of introducing the sport in our home state as well. My dream came true for the first time when Puri collector allowed us to introduce this sport at the Puri beach carnival."
He said: "We had launched the paramotor trike in Puri for two months. However, the windy weather did not allow us to run the show for more than 12 days. Then we decided to shift our plan to Bhubaneswar."
"But we were not allowed to start the ride in Bhubaneswar as the city has become a no-flying zone because of the international airport here. The local administration allowed us to start the ride only at Jatni, about 15km away from Bhubaneswar."
"We are still hoping to get a good response as the place is not very far away from Bhubaneswar. So, people can actually come here to enjoy the fun ride."
A 15-minute ride costs Rs 2000. "The people will get the experience of joy riding under the guidance of Nikolai Singh, a expert paraglider," said Biswal, adding that children below the age of seven would not be allowed to enjoy the ride.
Those who are aged above 60 years will be required to obtain a fitness certificate to experience the paramotor trike.
The ride will be operational between 5.30am and 10am and again between 4pm and 6pm.
Though Biswal did not want to comment on the investment he had to make, another source said that it usually takes around Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh to start such a ride service. "If our project is successful, we will also introduce the ride at Dhauli on the Bhubaneswar-Puri road," said Biswal.
