Bengal tourism department wants land bank for projects

The West Bengal tourism department is in the process of identifying 22 sites in and across Bengal for a proposed land bank for the department and its forthcoming projects.

Speaking on the sidelines of a government-industry interactive session organised by theConfederation of Indian Industry (CII), Eastern Region in association with Department of Tourism, Manabendra Mukherjee, state tourism minister, said, “We have already identified quite a good number of sites in every district and are looking at how these can be developed and used for tourism projects either independently or in PPP mode.”

T V N Rao, managing director of West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Limited, state nodal tourism corporation, pointed out that the department had identified some 22 new sites in government wasted lands and have asked the land department to transfer the land to the tourism department.

The infrastructure can be developed either single-handedly or in PPP mode.

"We have initiated the process. It will start shortly and is expected to be complete within the next six months," he said.

Two or three of the new sites will be routed through the tendering process. Tenders would be floated shortly, informed Rao.

Of the 22 new sites, Birbhum and Bankura are two important sites, both of which have immense potential in village and heritage tourism.

The department had earlier identified 20 such sites which have been transferred already and are in possession of the tourism department. All of them are at different stages of development.

Some of those places are Jalpaiguri, 24 Parganas, Digha, Mandarmoni.

The land bank scheme was initiated in the state tourism policy announced last year.The proposed land bank would be used in two ways.The government can either use a certain portion of the land to set up tourism infrastructure or develop other tourism services through private participation.

The department plans to bring in more such sites where tourism infrastructure can be developed either by government alone or through PPP mode.

According to Rao 10 more such sites have been identified, the department is yet to place it before the land department for transfer.

Mukherjee, also urged for more PPP partnership in development of tourism infrastructure."It should not only be for infrastructure but in the field of publicity as well. All said and done, the biggest obstacle to Bengal tourism continues to be a negative perception in tourists’ minds," he said.

In this respect, he added that in the last two years, the budget allocation for the publicity of Bengal’s tourism had increased 10-fold and the government was keen to double the amount to serve better purpose in the coming days.

While the minister urged for more private participation, many of the travel association members assembled in the meeting complained about lack of proper brand building exercise on the part of the government and absence of any major incentive policy for tour operators and many even left the session half-way.