Paragliders' meet to kick off in Pavagadh today

Indus Paragliding in The Times Of India, 3 February 2010


VADODARA: Prominent paragliding pilots from across the country arrived in the city on Wednesday to take part in Pavagadh paragliding festival that will kick off at the pilgrim hill station from Thursday onwards.
The four-day festival has been organised by ex-army man and sports enthusiast Captain Rajiv with the aim to not only survey the potential of the sport there, but to also explore whether Pavagadh can make it on paragliding map.

"Paragliding is gaining ground in India very rapidly, and the two most popular sites in India are Bir-Billing in Himachal Pradesh and Kamshet near Pune. Gujarat is totally missing in this list. We are holding this festival as an attempt to try and get Gujarat in this list," Captain Rajiv told TOI on Wednesday, adding that Pavagadh tops the list of potential sites in Gujarat for cross-country flying, also known as flat land flying.
"We will check the duration of the flying distance possible at Pavagadh," said Gurpreet Dhindsa, who is ranked India's best paragliding pilot by Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). "Himachal Pradesh is famous for paragliding because many good pilots come there."

"Pilots always like to fly at different places. There is potential to make a good paragliding circuit by connecting Kamshet, Pavagadh and other sites of Madhya Pradesh," added Sanjay Pendurkar, who runs Indus Paragliding school at Kamshet.

After the festival, which will see participation of 15 experienced pilots, the organisers will also submit a report to Gujarat government with a plan of action that the state can follow to promote adventure sports at Pavagadh. "If the study indicates positive results Pavagadh paragliding festival can become an annual invitation festival which can be converted into an open competition and subsequently an international one," he added.