The Tripura government will invest Rs 1,000 crore for building tourism infrastructure to make the northeastern state a world-class travel destination.
The state government has plans to make available five houseboats in the picturesque Dumbur Lake in the Dhalai district for tourists, besides setting up ropeways at four places in three districts to attract travellers, Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said.
“We are expecting to invest Rs 1000 crore for tourism infrastructure building to make the northeastern state a world-class tourism destination in the next few years. The way the Centre is extending help to the state, we hope funds will not be a constraint for a tourism boom here,” he said.
Under the first phase of the Swadesh Darshan programme, the Centre has allocated Rs 82.84 crore to the state and out of which Rs 73.74 crore has already been utilised for infrastructure building, Chowdhury told a press conference here.
He said the state has received Rs 16.57 crore out of Rs 50.38 crore to be available under Swadesh Darshan phase II.
“While the 97 per cent fund has been utilised in the first phase, the fund utilisation of the second phase stands at 48.08 per cent. A lot of work has been done to boost the tourism sector in the northeastern state during the past few years,” the minister said.
Chowdhury said the Centre has sanctioned Rs 37.80 crore for the development of Tripureswari temple, one of the Shakti Peethas in the country, in the Gomati district.
“Steps have been initiated to complete the facelift works at Tripureswari temple before Diwali. We want Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah to inaugurate the renovated temple,” he said.
Chowdhury said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to sanction a project amounting to Rs 180 crore for tourism infrastructure building in the state.
About plans of the state government in the tourism sector, he said there will be five houseboats, costing Rs five crore each, in Dumbur Lake which is 120 km from the state capital Agartala.
Besides, the government wants to set up ropeways in four spots – two in Gomati district and one each in Dhalai and North Tripura districts. One of them will be near the Tripureswari temple.
To increase revenue from the sector, the minister said the department has been focussing on various segments, such as tea tourism, eco-tourism and adventure tourism.
Tourism was badly affected by the Covid pandemic as only 74,344 domestic tourists visited Tripura in 2020-21. The figures are 1,96,820 in 2021-22 and 2,29,712 in 2022-23.
The revenue collected from the sector was Rs 10 crore in 2022-23, which was only Rs 5.71 crore in 2021-22.
Source: PTI
