Next in the festival was one of its biggest hit, ‘helicoper ride’. Children looked at the six-seater Chetak in awe as it zoomed down to the temporary helipad on the Calicut medical college ground.
The chopper was brought to amuse the people of Malabar as the part of the festival and it had achieved its aim hands down. King Rotters and Air chartered Private limited had arranged the helicopter which zoomed above the city from 25th December to 31st December carrying excited passengers. Most of them boarding a chopper for the first time.
A huge crowd of local people had arrived on the inauguration day to have a ride which was charged at Rs. 1000/- per head. Children could be seen curiously touching the chopper which they said they thought looked like common dragon-fly seen in the fields here. The north zone inspector general of police M.N. Krishnamoorthy inaugurated the ride. Among the keen ‘riders’ on the inaugural day were CPI(M) councilors Kanangot Haridas and Renuka Devi and former mayor and the sports council president T.P. Dasan. The ten minute long ride had won the hearts of people.
The often heard comment after the ride was “I didn’t know that our city looked so beautiful when viewed from the sky”.
