Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sep 26: Indian Institute of Skiing & Mountaineering (IISM) Gulmarg is conducting two 10-days Hot Air Ballooning courses at Jammu on the grounds of Government Science College to promote adventure tourism. Twenty-five students from all over the country are participating in each course.
Ex Director of IISM Gulmarg Col J S Dhillon, who is supervising its field activities, said that since the tourism flow to Jammu is shrinking due to rail link going to Katra and Udhampur, there is a need to develop some good attractions for the tourists in Jammu.
He said keeping this in view, Union Ministry of Tourism has taken this initiative to conduct Hot Air Balloon training so that youth trained in it could start their own ventures to promote Jammu region as air sport destination. He said all the local authorities of tourism, sports, police and air force are providing full support for conduct of this activity. Subedar Ram Mohan (ex-army officer) is conducting the flights of balloon as he is the most experienced pilot in the country with 600 hours of flying experience.
In simple graduation ceremony today, Prof Dr Manoj Singh Gaur, Director IIT Jammu inspected the training on live hot air balloon and gave away certificates of success to students of first batch. He said that today’s generation needs such adventure activities to get out of the intoxication of different electronic gadgets.
The second course commenced on Sunday (September 25). The bookings are open on institute website at iismgulmarg.in. The current course has students from Mumbai, Telangana, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana & many other states.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
