Ganjam prepares to woo tourists

With the beginning of the tourism season in Orissa, the district administration and tourism officials in Ganjam are making all efforts to woo the tourists to different destinations in the district.

Ganjam district has 21 identified tourist spots including Gopalpur-on-Sea, Buddhist rock edict at Jaugarh and Tampara sweet water lake besides a number of ancient religious places.

"The devastating floods in various parts of coastal Orissa coupled with the communal violence in Kandhamal district will not impact the arrival of tourists in Ganjam", said Sukant Patnaik, the district tourism officer. Special arrangements are being made by the district administration to attract the tourists this year, particularly to Gopalpur-on-Sea, Tampara and Tapatapani. "We have asked the hoteliers of Gopalpur to sponsor cultural programmes every day at the sea beach. Besides, we have also asked the hoteliers to organise cultural programmes in their hotels" he said. Gopalpur has eight hotels with a combined capacity of 418 rooms.

The tourism department has spent about Rs 5 crore for the development of the tourism infrastructure in Gopalpur under the destination tourism scheme of the Central government, Patnaik added.

With its sandy beaches and conducive climate, Gopalpur attracts domestic as well as overseas tourists. According to sources, as many as 2,83,040 tourists visited the beach town last year out of which 2.82,150 were domestic tourists.

The district administration has also decided to campaign for Tampara this time. Tampara, a 12 sq km sweet water lake, located just 50 metres away from the National Highway near Chhatrapur offers facilities of boat club and water-scooter. This tourist destination is surrounded by dense forests and offers jungle and beach trekking up to Gopalpur, Patnaik said.

The other major tourist spots in the district are Tapatapani, famous for its hot-springs. Taptapani is located about 50 km from Berhampur and was developed with an investment of Rs 5 crore under the destination tourism project of the Centre. As many as 98,810 tourists including 130 foreign tourists had visited the spot last year and more tourists are expected this year.

“The Centre had sanctioned Rs 4.39 crore for development of tourist infrastructure in nine identified spots in Ganjam district. These spots are Narayani, Rambha, Gopalpur, Tampara, Bhairabi, Nirmalajahara,Taratarini, Mahurikalua, Dhabaleswara and Jaugarh.