Tripura: NE tourism circuit likely

Agartala, Sep 16: The Tripura government has proposed to set up a tourism circuit in the Northeastern region while introducing low cost helicopter service among the states of the region to ensure smooth connectivity and provide sufficient financial assistance for promotion of eco-tourism.

Addressing the fourth Northeast Business Summit in Guwahati yesterday, Tripura Tourism Minister Anil Sarkar proposed specific demands, including holding statewise tourism festival in the region and declaring Unakoti, a historical spot of Tripura, as World Heritage Site, besides other infrastructural support.

Underlining the tourism development of NE, Mr Sarkar stated that it was in wooing investment both from within and outside the region, as the Northeast was an unexplored paradise with unlimited opportunities.

He also urged the investors, foreign delegates, ministers and ambassadors of Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and China to invest in this region.

He pointed out that Southeast Asia starts from Northeast and in a 2000-km radius, several South Asian countries almost fall within it and said education, transport, horticulture, IT, IT-enabled services, sericulture and food processing had already become vibrant sectors of investment.

''Despite rich natural resources and high literacy levels, what we see is a pattern of low capital formation, poor infrastructure, high levels of poverty and unemployment, poor geographical and physical connectivity and lack of exploitation of inherent strengths of the region,'' he pointed out.

The Summit and its follow-up activities would help understand what new patterns of innovative approaches could be adopted for positive economic changes in the Northeast, Mr Sarkar added.

UNI