Govt plans to create 1.5 lakh additional rooms for tourism

New Delhi, Nov 30 (UNI) The Government is planning to allow people, residing in tourist places across the country, to provide a certain number of rooms in their houses to tourists under its bed and breakfast scheme, Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni told the Lok Sabha today.

She said there was acute shortage of hotel rooms in the country, estimated at around 1.5 lakh, and they had to be built before 2010's Commonwealth games.

In 2014, the Afro-Asian games were slated and the Government was also planning to bid for hosting the Olympic games, Ms Soni said during the question hour.

She said her Ministry had written letters to all State governments, requesting them to identify the places where small and medium level hotels could be developed for domestic tourists and a large number of states had already responded.

In fact, the Uttar Pradesh Government had submitted some good proposals for setting up of private and public partnership hotels in Noida.

Similarly, Railways, which had about hundred such hotel sites.

had already shortlisted twenty such locations and work on them would start very soon, she added.

Ms Soni said her Ministry was giving special attention towards the development of tourism in West Bengal and Asom for the promotion of Tea tourism in Bengal and river water cruise over Bramhaputra river in Asom.

She said the State Governments have been advised to follow investor friendly land policies and a single window approach for promoting hotel projects and also for allotting sites on revenue sharing basis, granting extra FSI/FAR for hotels, permitting extra commercial usage in the hotels.

In this context, the Ministry was in consultation with various state governments for the creation of a Land Bank for the use of medium level hotel sectors, she added.

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