Steena Joy – Willingdon Island, Kochi
Kerala Tourism’s Muziris Heritage Project is ready to roll as four more museums, the hop on hop off boat service and the Kodungallur Visitor Centre is ready for launch. Speaking on the sidelines of the eighth edition of the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) 2014 Benny Kuriakose, the chief consultant for the project said, “The Muziris project already has opened four museums. Four more museums that is the Sahodaran Ayyappan Museum, Kesari Balakrishna Museum, Abdul Rahman Museum and the Kerala Isalmic History Museum are ready to open to the public. Apart from these, the Visitor Centre at Kodungallur is also ready. Near Kodungallur, a convention centre with capacity to seat 1500 people is also ready. The airconditioned hop on hop off boat service with a capacity of 24 pax per trip will start from this Visitor Centre and will cover 25 kms and touch the four museums and the excavation site. The Kottapuram fort site is almost ready too.”
Suman Billa, secretary tourism, Government of Kerala added that everything is ready and the tourism department is awaiting the availability of the Prime Minister for inaugurating the same. There are also plans to start a hop on hop off bus service in Kochi. KTM 2014 is being held at Samudrika, the Cochin Port Trust’s cruise facilitation centre at Willingdon Island, Kochi for the first time.
Kuriakose added that, “The state cannot survive only on the backwaters or the beaches; we have to have a new portfolio and Muziris will spearhead this.” Jose Dominic, CMD, CGH Earth agreed, “Muziris will do for Kerala what Angkor Vat did for Cambodia. It will be the complete gamechanger for Kerala Tourism.”
