Joy Roy Choudhury – Kolkata
 |
|
Bhishmadeb Dasgupta
|
The Finance Department, Government of West Bengal has increased the budgetary allocation for the state tourism department to a new high. Presenting the state budget for 2014-15 in the West Bengal State Assembly, state finance minister Dr Amit Mitra proposed to increase the budgetary allocation for the state tourism department to Rs 223 crore in the coming financial year up from Rs 120 crore in 2013-14. Elaborating on the subject, he said, “A mega tourism project at Jharkhali in Sunderbans has made significant progress. Letters of Intent (LoI) has been issued for a budget hotel and a three-star hotel.”
A joint venture agreement has been executed for heritage tourism at ‘Jhargram Raj Bari’ in Paschim Medinipur. In the ‘mega tourism project’ at Gajaldoba, infrastructure development work of more than Rs 100 crore has been taken up by different departments. The construction of 20 cottages, budget accommodation and a youth hostel is already underway, added Mitra. He added that during 2013-14, ‘Beautiful Bengal’ was showcased at several international tourism fairs / marts held at Jaipur, ITB Asia held in Singapore and WTM London. The state tourism department will be also sending a 10-member delegation to ITB Berlin, to be held from March 5-8, 2014.
Confirming the development to Express TravelWorld, Bhishmadeb Dasgupta, MD, West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (WBTDC) said, “At Berlin, the West Bengal delegation will hold B2B meetings with the tourism fraternity from different parts of the globe and showcase a bouquet of tourism products from the state. We will be focusing on the cultural diversities of the state, like folk music of the ‘Baul’ community, festivals like Tusu’ and ‘Bhadu’ and the ‘Basant-utsav’, Holi festival celebrated in Bolpur, Shantiniketan. We will promote the snow-capped hills of the Darjeeling region and sub-divisions of Kalimpong, Kurseong.” WBTDC has designed unique conducted tours for tourists like ‘Heritage’, ‘Upasana’, ‘Sundarban’ and several other customised packages to places like the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, sea resorts of Digha, Bakkhali, Shankarpur and the Sunderbans. The heritage packages takes tourists to ancient places of Bengal like Murshidabad, Berhampore, Malda and Kolkata.
