Rs 475cr Bengal Plan To Promote Tourism

The state government has decided to privatise loss-making tourist lodges and such other facilities. The privatisation could be through a long lease or by management contract.

The recent decision of the state government to notify tourism as an industry and extend incentives to investments in tourism under the West Bengal Incentive Scheme, 1993 (for medium and small scale industries) is expected to attract considerable private investment.

The tourism perspective plan comes in the wake of the projection of a three-fold increase in tourist arrivals in the next few years.

The tourism department has already requested all district administrations to identify new spots and draw up district-wise plans for tourism development.

 

West Bengal being the gateway to the East and the North East, efforts will also be made to consult other states in these two zones and draw up a compatible tourism master plan.

The West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation, the nodal agency for tourism development in the state, has been advised to resort to market borrowing if the state budget is unable to offer adequate support.

The corporation, which runs all the state-owned tourist lodges, has been advised to renovate, upgrade and expand the lodges within the next 2-3 years. New facilities like restaurants, banquet halls, local handicraft selling centres etc. will be part of the routine facilities of these lodges.

The state government proposes to utilise as much financial assistance from the Centre as possible to set up new tourist lodges at heritage and pilgrimage spots. This in turn is expected to motivate more private investment in the vicinity.

The state master plan has identified several types of tourism that need to be promoted separately.

These include heritage tourism, convention tourism, pilgrimage tourism, cultural tourism, sports tourism, adventure tourism, forest and wildlife tourism, river tourism, beach tourism, highway tourism, railway tourism, plantation tourism, eco-tourism etc.

West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation is planning to set up an amusement park in Siliguri, the gateway to the Darjeeling hills and the north-eastern states.

There are plans to set up water sports centres in the two big lakes in north and south Calcutta and in the reservoirs of Maithon, Panchet, Mukutmanipur, Durgapur, Teesta barrage site etc.

The department is also planning to develop a golf village of international standards in the outskirts of Calcutta.

Hill stations like Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Sandakphu, Phalut, Mirik etc. are facing excessive pressure of tourists. The state government is consulting the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council to develop new tourist spots.

The state government is also taking up with the Railway Board the issue of introducing superfast trains between Calcutta and Siliguri, a fast train to connect Calcutta with Murshidabad, and a palace-on-wheel type of train to connect the Buddhist circuit spread over Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

It will also encourage the private sector to set up air-conditioned shopping plazas to attract the tourists from the North East who prefer to come to Calcutta for shopping.