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Journalism of Courage
During a recent visit here,Union tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahay had suggested several ways of boosting the tourism industry in Bengal. One of them was to convert government guest houses into budget hotels.
I am requesting the state government to convert all its guest houses forest,PWD,irrigation to budget hotels. Go vertical. Hotels of 100-200 rooms. Today there are only 4-5 rooms in a guest house and there are hardly any officials who put up at these places. Location-wise,land-wise,these guest houses are perfect and the state government should go for revenue sharing models in public private partnership, he said.
Let the state and the Centre join hands to develop the infrastructure and revenue-generating things can be done in the PPP model, he said.
State tourism minister Rachhpal Singh said that although they were looking at such partnership possibilities and talks were on,it did not seem possible in the near future. The state does not always want to give up its land holdings. That has been the biggest issue, he said.
Sahay had said that tourism would always be the last priority in the budget because uplift of the downtrodden sections of society would always have the upper hand. So the ministry would have to find ways and means to revive the tourism sector.
Looking at the projected growth in the tourism sector,Sahay said,There will be a requirement of 2 lakh accredited hotel rooms and 20 lakh budget hotel rooms. Down the line,you have to develop your infrastructure. He also stressed on the importance of cleanliness.
As a model project,corporate houses should take up Howrah Station and look after its cleanliness,Singh suggested.
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