Before Vijay Rupani govt stepped down, Gujarat sought Centre’s help to revive seaplane project

Just days before it was ousted, the Vijay Rupani government had begun looking for options to resurrect the much-hyped seaplane service connecting Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad to Statue of Unity in Kevadia in Narmada district that has been inoperative since April this year.

In a confidential letter, accessed by The Indian Express, then Gujarat Minister for Civil Aviation, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, wrote a letter to Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia on September 1, seeking his “intervention in a sensitive matter”, proposing that the Union government could “provide the capital cost of Rs 120 crore to Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Limited (GUJSAIL) for acquiring two seaplanes as a “pilot project” for operation from Sabarmati Riverfront (SRF) to Statue of Unity (SoU).