The State Government is making efforts to develop every town and locality of Uttarakhand with their ancient history into tourist destination. The Government has achieved considerable success in its efforts to meet this target, said Chief Minister Harish Rawat while addressing tourists at the conclusion of week-long carnival organised in Nainital by the district administration.
The CM arrived in Nainital as planned on Thursday to mark the new year celebrations with tourists in this lake city. Citing figures from 2015, the CM said that about 15 lakh tourist arrivals were registered in the State during the year. He said, “Following the destruction caused by 2013 disaster, the government has worked towards improving tourism in the State. The Char Dham Yatra is a striking example of this with lakhs of tourists and pilgrims from India and abroad visited Uttarakhand sending a message to the world about the State now being a safe destination for tourists. Tourists also visited Nainital, Mussoorie, Dayara Bugyal, Pandukeshwar, Auli, Gunji, Munsyari, Kedarnath-Badrinath, Haridwar, Hemkund and Piran Kaliyar. The government is planning to work in the sphere of adventure sports,. The State is working on facilitation of aero sports, helicopter sight seeing, hot air ballooning, mountain biking and para gliding. Till now river rafting was being facilitated only at Shivpuri, Rishikesh but we have marked Pancheshwar, Jauljivi, Chandrapuri and Purnagiri Tanakpur for river rafting. We are also working on leopard safari so that tourists can spend time with leopards and click selfies with the spotted cat,” said the CM.
Pointing at the spiritual and Yoga related aspects of Uttarakhand, the CM said that the State Government will be organising a Yoga Kumbh in the coming year. Conveying his good wishes to the tourists present on the occasion, the CM also invited them to visit Uttarakhand again during the Ardh Kumbh slated to start in January. He also announced that the government will start construction of the international zoo and zoological park in Haldwani. Earlier, in the day, the CM also enjoyed a bit of boating with tourists on the Naini lake apart from taking a ride on a cycle rickshaw from Mallital to Tallital.