The State Government on Monday disbursed financial assistance to Cyclone Fani-affected tourist boat owners to repair and redevelop their boats with better engines and facilities so that they would attract more tourists in coming days.
While distributing assistance, Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said, “There is no such scheme as to provide financial assistance to tourist boats affected in natural disasters. But the Government has decided to help them as they have been equally affected like any other community in the cyclone.”
Tourism Secretary Vishal Dev, Puri Collector Balwant Singh, SP Umashankar Dash and Hudco Director SK Nanda graced the occasion held here on Monday.
As many as 789 tourist boat owners were provided assistance for damage of 1,066 boats.
Of the total amount of Rs 8.33 crore, Rs 4, 26, 40, 000 was provided from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) gave Rs 1.92 crore and the State Bank of India Rs 5.08 crore as Mudra loan.
“In Odisha, only 10 per cent revenue comes from tourism industry. We should try to provide better services to tourists so that more and more people from different parts of the world will come to visit places like Puri again and again,” said Dev.
The programme was concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Sub Collector Bhabatarana Sahu.