Mamata Banerjee plans to turn Sunderbans into world-class tourist destination

The idea behind this is to attract the industrialists to invest in fields like infrastructural development and tourism in the area.

Among her programmes, apart from the series of meetings with the industrialists where the potential of Sunderbans will be projected, the Chief Minister will also inaugurate 20 high-end cottages on Sagar beach and will lay the foundation stone of a 50-room bungalow for budget tourists.

As a sequel to Thursday’s visit, on December 7 the Chief Minister will go further deep into the Sunderbans area and will visit Jharkhali where too she will make an assessment of the tourist potential of the area.

“Basically what we are trying to do is an image-makeover of the Sagar Islands which was known only for pilgrimage. Now we are aiming at making it not only a pilgrim centre but convert the sea beaches into world class ones with all the necessary features, cruise, boat rides, I mean whatever you get at a modern sea beach like Goa. Second, there are the islands like Bakhkhali, Frasergunj, Henri Islands etc which will be well connected with speed boats, the jettys will be developed, jungle safaris will be arranged, the islands will be developed and modern, state-of-the-art cottages will be built, without in any way geopardising environment. And many of these things will be done on a public-private partnership basis for which we are going to appoint consultants soon,” Principal Secretary, tourism, Ajit Ranjan Bardhan, told The Indian Express.

In order to rope in local people in its schemes so that employments can be generated, the state government will encourage home tourism, an idea which is popular in many hill stations. “If villagers can be roped in to keep tourists in their households we can offer to build toilets,” Bardhan further said.

Sanjay Budhia, one of the industrialists who is accompanying the chief minister, says he is quite excited as he had never been to Sagar before. “You know, they say, seeing is believing. And it is after I see that I will be able to understand what potential Sunderbans has got. I am sure the place can be turned into a major tourist hub and we will see how we can chip in to make that successful,” Budhia told The Indian Express.