Four students hailing from Balotra, Rajasthan made their way to Haldwani, Uttarakhand but arrived to rain and landslides which had rendered roads unusable. The students had an exam to write and they used good thinking to resolve the situation.
The students arranged for a helicopter service to get to their exam centre in Munsiyari, Uttarakhand. They wrote their exam and returned to Haldwani by helicopter as well.
The students; Omaram Choudhary from Newari village, Magaram Choudhary from Sindhari, Prakash Choudhary from Bankiyawas, and Lucky Choudhary from Gida are pursuing a B.Ed. degree by correspondence through Uttarakhand Open University.
They had an exam scheduled at RS Tolia PG College in Munsiyari on September 3 for their final semester exam. They came to Haldwani by road and were able to complete their journey to the exam center by helicopter when the road beyond Haldwani to Pithoragarh was blocked due to rains and landslides.
The taxi drivers refused to go with the reports that the Haldwani-Pithoragarh and Tanakpur-Pithoragarh roads were closed. The students heard about a helicopter service. They called the CEO of Heritage Aviation for help and explained that failure to appear for the exam would mean wasting an entire year of preparation.
The company made special arrangements and sent a helicopter with two pilots to get them there. They arrived safely at RS Tolia PG College in Munsiyari by helicopter, took the exam, and were able to return by helicopter to Haldwani.
Each student had paid somewhere around Rs 5200 for one-way travel and Rs 10,400 for the round trip. The distance by road between Haldwani and Munsiyari is about 280 kilometers with about 10 hours of road travel. The helicopter trip was only about 25-30 minutes!
All four students are now working as third-grade teachers in different schools and studying for their B.Ed. degree. Student Omaram mentioned that they were very discouraged at first about the conditions, worrying it would cost them a year, but thanks to the helicopter service they were able to take the exam.
Student Magaram added the helicopter trip to the exam centre was thrilling and meaningful, because they were finished with their final semester exam.
“We got to know that roads are blocked and we cannot reach our exam centre by road. We took the services of a helicopter and reached our exam centre,” said Magaram.
Also Read: Foreign Woman’s Body Found Naked in Gurugram; Police Suspect Rape, Dumping Under Flyover
