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With sky full of colours, hot air balloon festival kick-starts in Varanasi today | In photos
The three-day festival has been organised to promote tourism in Varanasi. At a height of 1,000 feet, people taking the ride can get an aerial view of the city on the banks of Ganga.
The sky was filled with colours in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi on Wednesday as scores of people took the hot air balloon ride at a height of 1,000 feet to get a stunning view of the city located on the banks of Ganga river. The hot air balloon event in Kashi is being held between November 17 and November 19 at the bank of the river near Domri raj ghat.
Four stations have been built by Domri, CHS Sports Ground, BLW Sports Ground and Sigra Stadium around the city for take-off and landing of the hot air balloons that are being flown under the supervision of Air Traffic Control (ATC). The stations have taken into consideration that the hot air balloons are flown safely with mutual coordination.
A total of eight pilots, seven of whom are foreigners, have been called to fly the balloons. About five to eight people are able to fly in one hot air balloon for 45 minutes and experience a scenic aerial view of Varanasi.
"Eleven hot air balloons will be part of the event. It is a promotional event. Efforts are on to turn it into a regular event in Kashi," Varanasi District Commissioner Deepak Agrawal told news agency PTI.
Speaking on the ticket prices, Agrawal said that the tourism department has fixed the ticket price at ₹500 per person.
The festival was first organised in December 2017 in a 10-day event to explore the scope of adventure tourism in Varanasi and make it a permanent adventure to attract tourists to the city.
