State Tourism Minister Ajay Chandrakar on Wednesday met Union Culture and Tourism Minister Shripad Yasso Naik in New Delhi and demanded Rs113.15 crore for expansion of services under various tourism projects.The tourism projects include— Developing Gangrel dam as an ‘Eco tourist spot’ and Sirpur-Kodar-Raipur-Tandula as mega ‘Eco tourist circuit’. Chandrakar said that Chhattisgarh aims at increasing number of tourists from 2.5 crore in a year to 10 crore during the next 10 years. He also demanded a special grant of Rs30 crore from the Centre for publicity of tourist places in Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh Tourism Board (CTB) Managing Director Santosh Kumar Misra was also present during the meeting. He said that the State has not received any assistance from the Centre for the last 5 years for development of tourism in Chhattisgarh.
He also urged the Union minister to immediately sanction funds for setting up a National Hotel Management Institute in the State. Misra also demanded Rs200 crore for ‘Open Air Heritage Complex’ to be created to exhibit cultural heritage, tourist places and providing regular employment to folk artists. He also demanded that information related to all tourist destinations of Chhattisgarh should be included in the tourism website of the Government of India.