Police help sought to check black marketing of Kedarnath air tickets

The Uttarahand additional chief secretary (ACS), aviation, has sought police help to check black marketing of tickets for helicopter services to Kedarnath.

“I have written to the director general of police (DGP) to investigate black marketing of tickets,” ACS Om Prakash said.

A PIL filed at the Uttarakhand high court by Rajeev Dhar, who runs the helipad at Tirjuginarayan near Kedarnath, has submitted proof of black marketing of tickets.

The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) floated tenders for the chopper services four times in a month.

According to guidelines prescribed in the tenders, 70% of the tickets will be booked online and 30% manually. Aadhaar numbers will be mandatorily mentioned in both types of ticketing, yet black-market sale of tickets has been reported.

“Of 9 copters running, only two have online system of booking. The remaining 7 do not have online servers through which bookings can be done,” said Dhar. “This means that they are doing 100% bookings manually going against the tender procedure. We have proof where pilgrims are charged over Rs 10,000 for ticket plus GST.”

The government has fixed Rs 7300 for Guptkashi-Kedarnath helicopter service, Rs 6700 for Phata-Kedarnath, and Rs 6350 for Sersi-Kedarnath.

Prakash has demanded that 12 contractual staff from the government be deployed at helipads to check the identity of pilgrims, so that discrepancies in ticketing can be plugged.

After the 2013 deluge, private operators invested in Kedarnath aviation services. The government promoted the services, which later came under the radar of the National Green Tribunal. In an affidavit submitted to the tribunal, the government promised to start a rope way facility that could regulate the prices of chopper services.

Aviation services are apparently not planned for other three shrines on the Chardham circuit -- Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.

“PM has announced a railway network for Badrinath. Gangotri is a restricted area and the helipad for Yamunotri is very far off. There are some loopholes in initiating heli services to these shrines,” Prakash said.