Centre planning to promote tea tourism in Bengal

Kolkata, July 4 (UNI) The Union Ministry of Tourism is planning to promote tea tourism in West Bengal.

Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Ambika Soni said here today that the state government had proposed a Rs eight crore project for tea tourism, and the Centre had already allocated Rs 388.98 lakh in 2006-7.

Ms Soni said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had proposed this project and she had already held several rounds of discussions with State Tourism Minister Manab Mukherjee.

'' I am going to finalise the project in a meeting with the Chief Minister tomorrow. However, there are certain clarifications on the matter as the Union government is planning a similar project in Asom. So the West Bengal government must design special attractive packages to draw tourists in the sector, '' she said.

The state government should develop forest and PWD guest houses, she said adding this kind of tourism could be developed in the state with public-private partnership because such programmes could not be solely run by Central assistance.

'' I have requested the Tourism Minister to encourage new entrepreneur to invest in the sector, '' she stated.

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