Rural tourism debut for Bengal this month

Rural tourism will make its formal debut in West Bengal next month when a Rs 70 lakh project will be opened at Ballavpur Danga village near Santiniketan.

The project, which has been funded by the West Bengal Tourism department along with Central funds, will primarily be run by self-help groups (SHG) thereby, employing local people, state tourism minster Manabendra Mukherjee said here at a CII event.

“We will launch the first rural tourism project on February 26,” he said.

Mukherjee said that another similar project at Mukutmanipur in Bankura district will also be opened soon, while work on two more initiatives at Hooghly and Bankura districts are also underway.

For all these ventures, while the state government will prepare the physical infrastructure, SHGs will undertake the daily activities, for which specific soft-skills training will be imparted.