NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24: The Ministry of Civil Aviation is planning one-of-its-kind special seaplane services for the Lakshadweep islands on the lines of the Maldives Air Taxi. A senior Ministry official said that a high-level meeting to decide on the issue will be soon held.

Seaplanes are capable of taking off and landing on water bodies. These aircraft have been operating from Maldivian waters for about two decades. The seaplane services are also available in the US, Canada, Bangladesh and several other countries.

While originally planned for the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the seaplane idea could not take off in the union territory despite a high demand because of the rough waters of the surrounding Bay of Bengal. The Ministry has now decided to make do with two Pawan Hans helicopters at the Andamans as the administration there has long been demanding dedicated air services to ensure island inter-connectivity and timely medical aid to largely unreachable tribal pockets. “At Andamans, besides regular domestic flights, the Navy and Air Force also cater to the UT’s needs but there is more demand. So we are planning to purchase two helicopters for their needs keeping in mind medical emergencies and evacuations,” said a Ministry official.

“Lakshadweep Islands are quite likely to get sea planes and we are closely examining the Maldives air taxi model. In Maldives, sea planes fit perfectly for inter-island connectivity and are very commonly used. While Andamans cannot have such a facility as seaplanes require relatively calm sea, but it won’t be problem in Lakshadweep with its quite Indian Ocean waters,” said the official. “Since seaplanes are no more manufactured anywhere in the world, the option of asking the Maldives seaplane operators to run services here is being explored,” the official added.

Pawan Hans had even sent a delegation to Maldives last year to study the Maldives air taxi system and had returned quite impressed and eager to replicate the model in India. Maldivian Air Taxi is a Danish airline company based in Male in the Maldives. It operates float-equipped aircraft, some 20 sea planer twin otters, on tourist charters and Government VIP flights throughout the Maldives.

Lakshadweep with a single airport faces major problems in reaching other islands by air and hopes to address it through induction of seaplanes. It has long been mulling such a service and a private aviation company had even proposed the same to the UT administration earlier. A study on safety and operational requirements for seaplanes was also conducted and the islands of Bangaram, Kadamat, Kalpeni, Kavaratti and Minicoy were found suitable for their operation. The island’s administration had last year inducted high-speed boats connecting different islands of the Union Territory.