Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A 90-year-old nonagenarian, Hans Koehler, who has visited India 150 times, stressed the need for air linkage of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) with Udaipur for the progress and prosperity of the city’s tourism.
Fascinated by Cave No 16 (Kailas Temple) at Ellora and the marvellous paintings of Ajanta Caves, Koehler recalls how the city was selling like a hot cake when it was connected with Udaipur.
Koehler reached the tourism capital - Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) - in the royal train Deccan Odyssey after a gap of 30 years. He visited Ajanta Caves on Tuesday.
While sharing his views, he said, “ I was the Manager for Air India in Kolkata from 1960 to 1963. Thereafter I went to Frankfurt and to Hamburg in 1964 and was working for Air India until 1997.”
He has worked for 37 years with the airliner. Popularly Known as ‘Mr India’ in Germany, Koehler felt sad that there were very few tourists in the city and India.
ATDF president Jaswant Singh said,“ Hans Koehler shared that when he travelled from Frankfurt to India, he found 90% Indians and 10% Germans on board. In the olden days, 90% of German tourists and 10% of others used to fly. Hence, he expressed his concern over the drop in foreign tourists to the district.”