ITAHARI, March 8: Commercial operation of a zip flyer adventure began in province 1 from Saturday. Chief Minister of province 1 SherdhanRai officially inaugurated the 650-meter-long pioneer zip flyer project.

The zip flyer starting from the takeoff station at the welcome gate of Bhedetar runs up to the landing station of Debhithan in Dharan-4.

Deputy Mayor of Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City Manju Bhandari made the 45-seconds-long maiden ride from Bhedetar to Debhithan.

Speaking at the brief inaugural program, CM Rai and deputy mayor Bhandari both extended their best wishes and pledged all possible support to this new tourism product of the state. According to the Worldwide Nepal Group Private Limited, which owns the project operated on the southern slope of Bhedetar, the project was conceptualized some two years ago and built within four months starting from December 2019.

''We hired expert technicians from Austria and procured high-quality equipment from the USA to operate this service'', said Bibas Bhandari, the proprietor of the zip flyer. Bhandari is also one of the owners of the 1100-meter-long Dhulikhel Zip Flyer in Kabhrepalanchowk district.

According to Bhandari, the maximum depth from the zip flyer line is 300 meter and the height difference between takeoff and landing station is 43 meters. The height of the takeoff station is 1420 meters from the sea level.

Furthermore, the 16 mm diameter zip line cable has a load capacity of 11 thousand and three hundred kilograms, the harness has 22 hundred kilogram capacity and the capacity of the carabineer is 2700 kilograms, said another co-owner Kedar Thapa.

Tourism entrepreneur Krishna Shah said the first zip flyer in the confluence of Dharan and Bhedetar is a great initiation for increasing tourist activities in the area.

''Dharan is a touristic city and Bhedetar is part of State Government-declared Tourism Rural Municipality of Sangurigadhi of Dhankuta'', Shah said, ''This new activity has added charm to already popular traveling locations in the vicinity,'' Shah said Indian tourists from neighboring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal are likely to be attracted to this new adventure, along with the domestic tourists. ''Dharan and Bhedetar are within few hours of vehicular ride from bordering areas of Bihar and West Bengal and this project can entice them,'' claimed Shah.

According to the operators, the exciting areal adventure is offered in three different categories namely classic, tandem and superman. For Nepali nationals, classic, superman, and tandem are charged at Rs. 1200, Rs. 1500 and Rs. 2000 respectively.

For the same categories, SAARC nationals are charged 15 dollars, 16 dollars, and 20 dollars.

However, for people from the rest of the world, the charge is 18, 20 and 22 dollars respectively. The launching discount of 20 percent applies to all the visitors. The Rs. 30 million-budgeted private tourism venture is technically run by Amir Karki-led three-member technical team.

Before its first commercial operation of the zip flyer in Dharan, the city already had tasted the first transient 150-meter-long zip flyer at the BP park area of Dharan-20 on 28 December 2018.

However, the transient operation didn't materialize into commercial operation.

 
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