Sea of tourists leave Andaman administration high and dry

Port Blair, Oct 09 (UNI) The sylvan recluse of the golden beaches of Andamans faces a scare from meeling tourists who have thronged the archipelago to bathe in its beauty.

Hundreds of tourists come to the call of these islands and this year has not been an exception, except for the fact that an overflow of holidayers have left them squabbling for accomodation.

The call of the exotic beaches, lush green mountains and panoramic view of the emerald waters have left many under the open sky in parks or in small motels and sometimes on the beaches.

''Number of tourists exceeds the accomodation facilities, at times we have to accomodate 7 to 8 persons in single hotel room,'' a local tour operator Nageshwar Rao said.

About one lakh tourists visit the islands every year but this year the figure was a remarkable 60,000 in the initial months.

Earlier, experts had predicted that the tourism sector would take another ten years to revive after tsunami had spelt huge disaster here in December 2004.

Amazed with the sky rocketing figures of tourists, the territory's tourism department secretary G Badjaiyan said, ''It seems that rise in the number of daily flights and introduction of low cost airlines in these islands has boomed the local tourism industry.'' Mr Badjaiyan told UNI here that the tourism sector is looking forward for infrastucture development to accomodate the growing number of tourists.

Meanwhile, the local BJP unit has also jumped in against the inconvenience faced by the tourists. In a press release the party said the tour operators are dissatisfied with the attitude and policies of the territory's administration.

'' We did not book any tour-operator from Mainland India before landing in Port Blair and it is surprising that there is no one to entertain us, local tour operators are overloaded with pre-booked tourists,'' a tourist from Kolkata Ranjan Saha said.

'' We face a lot of difficulty to get accomodation as the hotels and lodges are already occupied,'' Saha added.

Taking advantage of the situation many Auto and Taxi operators have also jumped into the business to make fast bucks by cheating the tourists, sources said.

'' Several tourists have lodged complaints with us of being cheated by the tour operators in guise of providing accommodation amount,'' Andaman Superintendent of police Jaspal Singh said.

'' We have cautioned unscrupulous elements against fleecing tourists as legal action can be initiated against them on complaint,'' he added.

The government officials have also expressed their serious concern over the issue as this could send a wrong signal of mismangement thereby affecting the tourism sector.

The Andaman tourism had planned a number of revival strategies after the disastrous tsunami, however, the spurt in number of tourists have created a piquant situation here.

But the tourists dont seem to mind, because the neverland is more attractive than the regular humdrum of the West.

UNI SKR PP BA DB1106