Mysuru: Every year Dasara is a big holiday season in Mysuru and tourists throng the city especially on the last two days — Ayudha Puja and Vijayadashami when the grand Dasara procession is held. This year, with extended holidays adding to the leisure of the people, the regular tourist hot spots like the Palace, KRS and Zoo witnessed a surge in gate collections.

However, another unique feature added to this year’s Dasara was the reintroduction of the flights from Mysore Airport. The flights from Mysuru to Chennai resumed after a gap of nearly two years, which has raised the hopes of Mysureans that it will be there permanently on the air map of the country.

Mysore Airport

As part of the Dasara celebrations, Mysore Airport was re-opened on Sept. 20 with Union Minister Jayant Sinha flagging off the first flight from Mysuru to Chennai.

In all, 1,236 travellers have flown from Sept. 20 to 30 from Mysuru to Chennai, said Mysore Airport Assistant General Manager (Air Traffic Management — ATM) P. Venkatachalam speaking to Star of Mysore, here yesterday.

The figures available with SOM shows that 57 people flew from Mysuru to Chennai and Hyderabad on Sept. 20, 63 on Sept. 21, 53 on Sept. 22, 56 on Sept. 23, 65 on Sept. 24, 57 on Sept. 25, 62 on Sept. 26, 57 on Sept. 27, 60 on Sept. 28, 56 on Sept. 29 and 59 on Sept. 30.  

Arrival figures: On Sept. 21, 58 arrived, Sept. 22 – 61, Sept. 23 – 59, Sept.24 – 50, Sept. 25 – 58, Sept. 26 – 57, Sept. 27 – 70, Sept. 28 – 71, Sept. 29 – 65 and Sept. 30 – 42. The TruJet flights operate under the UDAN scheme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 645 people have flown from Mysuru and 591 from Hyderabad and Chennai to Mysuru, said Venkatachalam and added that not a single day was there a break in flight operations.

The 72-seater TruJet ATR aircraft leaves Mysore Airport daily at 7.15 pm and lands in Chennai at 8.20 pm. From Chennai, it leaves at 5.40 pm and arrives in Mysuru at 6.50 pm. An average of 55 to 60 passengers fly daily and the response so far has been very encouraging, he said.

Mysore Palace

Nearly 1,05,238 visited the Mysore Palace from Sept 21 to 29 and that included visitors to Raitha Dasara, Palace-on-Wheels, Gold Card and on-line ticket booking visitors. However, on Sept. 30, the Vijayadashami Day, approximately 30,000 people watched the Dasara-2017 procession from the Palace precincts.

In all, there were 93,583 Indians and 586 foreigners totalling 94,169, visiting the Palace from Sept. 21 to 29. The visitors to Raitha Dasara was 10,662 from Sept. 21 to 29, while there were just 149 visitors to the Palace on Palace-on-Wheels all the nine days.

The District Administration introduces Gold Card every year so that people can watch all the programmes during Dasara. However, the response so far has not been all that encouraging. There were just 190 Gold Card visitors to the Palace this year and in spite of the digital push, on-line ticket booking recorded a dismal 68 visitors.

However, on Oct. 1, the Palace witnessed a surge in visitors with a record 33,519 Indians and 123 foreigners totalling 33,642 viewing the majestic Palace and the gate collection was Rs. 15,85,040.

Mysuru Zoo

Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, popularly called the Mysuru Zoo is a must visit on the tourists’ list. Surprisingly, when one looks at the number of visitors to the zoo in the last four years, while 1.33 lakh visited the Zoo during ten days in 2014, the numbers reduced to 1.23 lakh in the same period this year (2017).

On Ayudha Puja day in 2014, 27,187 people visited the Zoo, this year it was just 15,449. However, on Vijayadashami Day there was a significant raise in numbers this year when compared to 2014. While 31,722 was the number clocked in 2017 with a gate collection of Rs. 18.81 lakh, it was 29,863 in 2014 with a gate collection of Rs. 17.62 lakh.  

Visitors to KRS

In the four days of holidays between Sept. 29 and Oct. 2, the maximum rush in Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) Dam, popularly called as Brindavan Gardens in Mandya District, saw 38,000 tourists on Oct. 1. On the remaining days, it was 20,000 on Sept. 29, 30,000 on Sept. 30 and 23,000 on Oct. 2 with a total of 1,11,000 people in all visiting the famed tourist spot. The total gate collection on all the four days was Rs. 25 lakh.