A total of 894 people enjoyed a chopper ride at the 47th Rose Festival in Chandigarh. This is a dip from over a thousand people who took to the choppers last year. Apart from the alluring roses in the Zakir Hussain Rose Garden, helicopter rides were the other main attraction for the visitors. Even though the ticket for a quick aerial round of the city was priced at Rs 2,310, as many as 894 people shelled out this sum to enjoy 152 sorties in the helicopter. Keen to get an aerial glimpse of the tricity, visitors didn’t seem to mind shelling out the fat fees as they lined up for the sorties. This translated into a windfall of Rs 20 lakh for the company owning the chopper. However, the number of passengers is less than last year when more than 1,000 people enjoyed a bird’s eyeview of the city even though at Rs 2,380, the ticket was costlier than now. From kids to senior citizens, everyone enjoyed seeing Chandigarh from the skies. On the inaugural day of the festival on February 22, the weather played spoilsport and only 51 people enjoyed the chopper ride in 10 sorties. The number of passengers hit the roof the very next day with 203 people getting airborne on February 23. The finale on Sunday saw the number rise threefold to 640. The constant humming of the choppers annoyed many. A resident of Sector 7 complained that it felt she was living in a warzone with the choppers constantly hovering overhead. The Delhi-based Dhillon Aviation had pressed two choppers into service for these rides that have become an annual affair.
