Wonderla puts Hyderabad park on a space flying ride

Hyderabad: Wonderla Holidays Limited spiced up attractions at its amusement park in the city by launching Mission Interstellar, a space flying experience ride that the company has developed with an investment of Rs 40 crore.

Claiming it to be the country’s first such ride which transports visitors into space-like environment, Arun K Chittilappilly, the company’s Managing Director, said that the US and European theme park design firms which developed similar facilities for Hollywood movies were roped in for the project. “But we managed to reduce the cost by developing several components and features in-house. Such a facility costs far higher than Rs 40 crore that we have spent on it here,” he told the media here on Monday.

This latest attraction features a 3,500 sq ft parabolic screen, 4K resolution laser projector and a hydraulic lift seating system imported from Italy, that make the ride real and immersive. Sixty people can go in each batch for the ride which is housed in a building that’s as tall as an eight-storey structure, covered by 23-metre dome-shaped roof.

“Visitors board the ride vehicle that lifts them 40 feet up into the dome and the film is projected onto the giant dome screen so that the projected images completely fill the viewers’ field of vision. The flying movement of the ride vehicle is synchronised with the film,” he said.

Replying to a query, he said the Hyderabad park developed with an investment of Rs 300 crore was driving the growth of the company which had two more parks in Bengaluru and Kochi.

Over 7 lakh people have visited Hyderabad park in last one year while the number is about 11 lakh in Bengaluru. The newly-introduced GST is biting into the amusement park business as it is slotted in the highest tax slab of 28 per cent. But Chittilappilly is hopeful that the tax will be reduced to 18 per cent.