Bengal govt to appoint consultant to develop tourist spots

Kolkata, Aug 7 (UNI) The West Bengal government has decided to appoint a renowned consultancy firm to identify new tourist spots in the state and suggest their all round development for both budget and elite groups of tourists.

This was informed here today by West Bengal tourism minister Manabendra Mukherjee during an interactive session with members of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).

He said the process was on to identify the consultancy firm so that they could submit their reports after a thorough groundwork during the next two to three months.

He claimed that the industrial rejuvenation and the infrastructural developmental programme of the state had attracted a lot of domestic and foreign tourists in the state in the last couple of years and their number was growing steadily following the improvement of boarding and lodging facilities in different major tourist spots in the state, including Darjeeling and Sunderbans.

He said in order to further boost the tourism industry, the state government was also trying to develop a number of tea gardens in North Bengal as part of its programme to improve tea tourism in the state.

A number of closed tea gardens were also being promoted under public-private-partnership (PPP) for the promotion of tea tourism, the minister said.

He said that his department was also trying to develop a detailed blueprint of infrastructure development in various parts of the state to attract more tourists.

Replying to a query on the prospect of improving the scope of jungle and adventure tourism in the state, the minister said adequate steps were also underway to improve the boarding and lodging facilities in the Dooars and Gorumara forest areas in the state.

''We hope within the next two years and following the completion of most of the tourism related projects, the inflow of tourists in the state would go up manifold,'' the minister said.

He urged the private hoteliers to set up adequate number of hotels not only in and around Kolkata but also in far flung areas of the state in order to facilitate more people to visit the remote spots without being concerned about good boarding and lodging facilities.

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