Several tourism projects are underway
Archana Sharma – New Delhi
The Government of Uttar Pradesh recently signed a five year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) with a view to promote heritage sites and potential tourism spots of UP by organsing road shows and travel marts. In a step towards this direction, a B2B travel mart will be organised from February 22-24, 2015 in Lucknow. The travel mart will be attended by international stakeholders for pre-scheduled B2B meet with state and domestic stakeholders of the tourism industry. A website, www.ficci-uptm.com, for managing this event has been launched in Delhi by Om Prakash Singh, tourism minister, Government of UP. “The travel mart will witness participation from 25-30 domestic and 75 foreign tour operators. The B2B sessions will enable people to meet and discuss the tourism packages with the leading sellers of wildlife, heritage and Buddhist tourism in UP,” stated Rahul Chakravarty, director, FICCI.
Presently, several tourism projects have been announced to develop the tourism potential of the state. For instance, the state government has decided to develop a ‘heritage arc’ by linking Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi and has plans to develop tourist facilities and museums at Mathura and Vrindavan for which loan negotiations are going on with the World Bank. Talking about the upcoming projects, Amrit Abhijat, secretary tourism, Government of UP informed that under the Maitreya Project Kushinagar, the state government aims to build a 250-ft-high statue of Gautam Buddha. There are plans to conduct lion and elephant safaris in Etawah, and sound-and-light show at The Residency, Lucknow, Sarnath, and Ayodhya by the end of March. The existing sound-and-light show at Agra Fort is also being upgraded. The Tajganj Tourism Development project will be completed in a year, and under that, cleanliness and lighting will be improved. A theme park is also being planned in Agra.
The construction of Lucknow Metro and Lucknow-Agra Expressway, leading to the development of Nawabganj and Mainpuri is underway. The information city in Lucknow was already inaugurated and the night safari segment in Greater Noida is at take-off stage. Singh also informed that they have requested the Centre to increase the budget allocated to the state government for tourism promotion. Moreover, plans to establish Taj International Airport at Agra and an Kushinagar International Airport are in progress. Abhijat expects that the Heritage Hotel Policy will provide a major push to the hospitality industry of Lucknow, Varanasi, and Agra, which offers entrepreneurs in this sector a subsidy in luxury and entertainment tax.