PITHORAGARH: With road links to Munsyari in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand blocked due to landslides, four students from Rajasthan decided to hire a charter helicopter from Haldwani to appear for their BEd examination on Wednesday. Omaram Jat, Magaram Jat, Prakash Godara Jat, and Lucky Chaudhari booked the charter, shelling out Rs 10,400 each, to make it to their exam centre in time.The students, enrolled at Uttarakhand Open University in Haldwani, had arrived in the city on Monday for their exam scheduled on Wednesday at the Govt Degree College in Munsyari. When they tried to hire a car to get there, every taxi driver they approached refused the trip as the Haldwani–Pithoragarh and Tanakpur–Pithoragarh roads were blocked.“We started losing hope and thought we might miss the exam and lose an entire year. That is when someone told us that a chopper company, Heritage Aviation, offers helicopter rides to Munsyari,” said Omaram. The trip from Haldwani to Munsyari, which is around 280 km by road and usually takes around 10 hours, was completed in around 25–30 minutes. “We reached Munsyari on time for the exam and returned by the same chopper the next day,” said Narpat. “It was expensive, but we’re relieved we could sit for the exam,” he added.