For 39-year-old Sandipan Ghosh, gazing down at the Taj Mahal while soaring in the skies in a hot air balloon is an experience he will never forget. “The sight of the Taj emerging from the milky haze was simply magical. Of course, we couldn’t go anywhere within 500 metres of it due to restrictions, but it was still worth it,” says this Delhi-based PR executive, who travelled to Agra in November, this year, to be part of the first edition of the Taj Balloon Festival.
Ghosh is quite a veteran when it comes to hot air balloon rides, or ballooning as it is called.“I have done it several times in Jaipur, Pushkar, Lonavala and now in Agra. I love watching architectural marvels from the sky.
A Dedicated Pursuit
Ballooning has become quite a rage with young professionals in the cities, especially with those in the age group of 25 and above. While some indulge in it as a means of recreation during a holiday, others do it to strike off at least one item from their bucket list. But there is a dedicated set which is pursuing ballooning seriously as a sport.
The Ballooning Club of India, for instance, has 200 members from across India, with some of them training to be commercial ballooning pilots.
You start off by getting a student’s license if you are of sound health and more than 14 years of age; after further training, you get a private pilot license.Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, Honorary Secretary, The Ballooning Club of India
This octogenarian holds a record number of hours in ballooning and is credited with taking the first Indian team to World Championships for Hot Air Ballooning at Nantes, France, in 1973. “Even now, we train people to go to the world championships. The balloon ride business is picking up considerably, so people are considering taking it up commercially,” he says.
His thoughts are echoed by Tushar Raghuvanshi of SkyWaltz Balloon Safari, the country’s first and biggest commercial hot air balloon company, which organised the Taj Balloon Festival in association with the Uttar Pradesh government and also hosted the Pushkar International Balloon Festival recently.
Ballooning is the safest aviation sport, which is one of the reasons for its popularity.Tushar Raghuvanshi, Digital Communication and Marketing Head of SkyWaltz Balloon Safari
A Charming View
The charm of having the first rays of the sun warm your back, as you watch a gigantic balloon being inflated, is quite something else. “At the Taj festival, lots and lots of people used to wake up early to simply catch that sight,” says Ghosh. And then there is the ride itself. From 2,000 feet above ground, you get a whole new perspective of the city.
Skyscrapers seem to shrink into miniature models, minarets of a mosque give way to rambling ramparts of forts, and suddenly it’s just you with the vast expanses below and the blue skies above. For those who want to get a taste of ballooning but are squeamish about being several thousand feet up in the air, there are also tethered flights. This means that the balloon is tethered to the ground by a rope and you go up to 50 feet or so. These have become quite a trend at corporate events.
Rising Popularity
However, ballooning is not very easy to conduct in the country as it is governed by strict Directorate General of Civil Aviation rules. Not many companies are able to get a pan-India license as they fail to meet the cut. “Having a pan-India license, like us, means you can fly anywhere within the country,” says Raghuvanshi. So far, SkyWaltz, a venture by E-Factor Adventure Tourism, has flown 25,000 people.
While earlier foreigners constituted 95 per cent of the guests, the ratio between international guests to Indians has now become 75 to 25, which is a significant leap. “The best season for ballooning in India is between September and April and we operate daily during those months. We mostly do morning flights, but in November and December we conduct afternoon flights too in Jaipur,” he says. An hour-long flight is likely to cost you Rs 12,000 per person for adults and Rs 7,000 for a child within the age group of 5 to 12.
For those who have never set foot inside a hot air balloon and are curious about the systems within, here’s a low-down. So the basket, which is where you stand, has a capacity to hold either a group of four or eight. “There are light LPG cylinders inside the balloon, made of either aluminium or platinum. There is a burner too, which looks like a regular cooktop burner, but is designed to turn on and off quickly,” says Gupta.
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