Video | What is a helicopter doing at Chandigarh Rose Festival?

The three day 45th Annual Rose Festival took off with a chopper ride in Chandigarh on Friday morning. For the first time the residents will be treated to an aerial view of the city during the three day festival at Rose Garden in sector 16, which is the most sought after event of the city.

The 7 minute chopper ride costing Rs 3500 per person took off today morning from Sector 17 parade ground. City mayor Asha Jaswal and Chandigarh municipal corporation commissioner B Purshartha also took the ride.

The seven minute ride gives an aerial view of Rose Garden, Sukhna Lake, Sector 17 and back to Parade Ground to the passengers . In all 150 tickets have been sold for the chopper ride.

Watch the video here:

Last year 3 lakh visitors came to the three day festival and to attract more visitors municipal corporation introduced chopper ride. A new competition for newly-wed couple competition has also been added and winners will get a trip to Dubai

Other competitions include flower and rangoli (neighborhood parks, RWAs), Rose prince and princess, on-the-spot painting, brass and pipe band, rose quiz, photography, folk-dance, antakshari, kite-flying, rose king and rose queen (for senior citizens), floral hat competition.

This year, the festival is showcasing 829 varieties of roses with 1,438 flower beds and 47,000 plants over 46 acres.

About Rose Garden

Rose Garden has been named after name of third president of India Zakir Hussain Rose Garden. Spread over 46 acres of land with 50,000 rose bushes of 1600 different species. Rose Garden was created in 1967 under the guidance of MS Randhawa, first chief commissioner of Chandigarh. The garden has the distinction of being Asia’s largest garden, which has not only roses but trees of medicinal value.

First Published: Feb 17, 2017 16:29 IST