The State Government is developing tourism facilities at a cost of Rs 100 crore under Central Government's 'Tribal Tourism Circuit', officials informed.
The Chhattisgarh Tourism Board (CTB) had been working at a 'themed based' development of the project.
The Central Government has put up the anticipated timeline for completion of the Tribal Tourism Circuit in Chhattisgarh to be 2019-20.
The Tribal Tourism Circuit will provide an opportunity to the tourists to witness and experience tribal culture and traditions in Chhattisgarh, officials informed.
The key components for development under the project are ‘Ethnic Tourist Village’ and ‘Ethnic Tourist Development’, Destination Development and Wayside amenities.
The project would be developed by Chhattisgarh Tourism Board (CTB).
The Tribal Tourism Circuit comprises Jashpur-Kunkuri-Mainpat-Ambikapur-Maheshpur -Ratanpur-Kurdar-Sarodadadar Gangrel- Kondagaon-Nathyanawagaon -Jagdalpur Chitrakoot-Tirthgarh in Chhattisgarh under Swadesh Darshan Scheme.
Notably, the Central Government has approved Rs 99.94 crore based on a Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by CTB for development of the Tribal Tourism Circuit in the State under ‘Swadesh Darshan’ package.
The objective of forming the tourism circuit is to highlight rich and ancient tribal culture and environment of Chhattisgarh’s tribal dominated regions.
In this circuit, Jashpur, Ambikapur and Sarodhadadar would be developed as ethnic tourist village and Mainpat, Kurdur, Gangrel, Kondagaon, Jagdalpur, Chitrakoot and Teerathgarh are to be developed for eco-ethnic tourism while work for sight
amenities will be carried out in Kunkuri, Maheshpur and Nathiyanawagaon.
Moreover, an amount of Rs 32 lakh had been released by the Bastar District Collector to construct Tourism Information Center at Jagdalpur.
Master plans worth Rs 25 lakh had been drafted to beautify lamni Park and road-crossings.
Motel had been constructed at Theerathgad and channel fencing had been built at Chitrakoot and Theerathgad. Temporary tents had been constructed at Sirpur in Mahasamund district for the convenience of Kanwar passengers. About Rs 30.50 lakh had been sanctioned for a community hall at Sirpur.
Notably, Chhattisgarh exchanged MoUs worth Rs 12 crores for development of world-class tourist facilities during ‘Incredible India Tourism Investors’ Summit (IITIS)- 2016’ organised by the Ministry of Tourism in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry and the Tourism Finance Corporation of India from September 21 to 23, 2016 in New Delhi to promote investments in Tourism sector in India.
Several key announcements were made at the valedictory session of the Summit.
States like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh exchanged 86 MoUs during the session and many more are in the pipeline, aggregating close to Rs 15,000 crore, officials informed.
At the summit, Gujarat exchanged MoUs close to 9,000 crore, Karnataka with 2,600 crore, Rajasthan with 1,000 crore, Uttarakhand with 500 crores and Chhattisgarh with 12 crores. Also, BR Shetty Group is keen to invest 450 crore and Costa Cruise 750 crore and Triveni Singapore close to 800 crore in the country.
Notably, CTB had earlier also has decided to offer special concessions to the travel agents and tour operators for further boosting tourist traffic in the State.
Officials stated the Board will now charge an amount of Rs 1,000 for three year registration from these agents in order to provide services to the tourists.
Earlier, one year registration and validity charge amounting to Rs 1,000 was fixed for travel agents by the Board.