TravTalk India Online Magazine
Underlining her ministry’s focus on the North East region, RupinderBrar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, has said that road and air connectivity is a priority area here, while parallely developing tourism infrastructure such as homestays to ensure quick and holistic tourism development.
Hazel Jain
Speaking at a webinar on developing tourism in Mizoram, RupinderBrar, ADG, Ministry of Tourism, said that her ministry wants to make a difference in the next two months. “This subject is becoming extremely high priority at the ministry, for us, to take up the development and promotion of tourism in the north east region, including Mizoram. There is so much to be done. In that spirit, we were visiting the North East region in Guwahati for a two-day conference, led by the Tourism Minister. We also had other ministries such as Railways, Roads, Civil Aviation, DoNER, NEC and even Telecommunications. This is because the Minister said, we cannot just talk about connectivity and leave out digital connectivity in today’s world. Shipping was the only one, not present because that is a dimension that doesn’t need to be worked on, right now. We probably will add them later when we will look at more customised things around the Brahmaputra.” she elaborated. Mizoram launched its Mizoram Responsible Tourism Policy 2020 that will drive the state’s recovery process.
Air connections for priority areas
This puts in perspective the kind of priority given by the government of India to the entire region. “Tourism is a huge employment generator for the region. In the long-term it will help conserve the very unique cultures of this region. That’s the idea behind tourism development here and the two-day seminar in Guwahati. Discussion on logistics made us realize that there was so much happening in area of roads particularly as well as civil aviation. The MOT is discussing with MoCA about adding more routes on the Viability Gap Funding to be done by the MoT for priority areas and Mizoram is going to be a significant part of that strategy,” Brar reveals.
From the infrastructure point of view, SwadeshDarshan is a work in progress. A lot of projects got reviewed in Guwahati recently and the Tourism Minister recently approved a project along key pilgrimage sites under PRASHAD. In addition, there was also a lot of discussion on another key segment – developing home-stays and capacity building.
Creating small work groups
So how will the MOT take the promotion forward? Brar says, “Outreach and promotion is a significant part of our strategy for the NE. We want to create small work groups around the specific verticals with stakeholders that are actually located in the North East region. We definitely want to make a difference in the next few months and it has to be a perceptible difference.
Before we can do that, we would need to craft out focussed work groups. The strategy needs to be very clear, and once etched out, we need to deep-dive and start working. The NE is one of the most beautiful parts of India and so much needs to be done.”
Projects worth Rs 200 cr sanctioned
Speaking at the two-day forum in Guwahati, G. Kishan Reddy said that the Ministry has sanctioned 16 projects under the SwadeshDarshan Scheme in the North Eastern region. He added that through the schemes, his ministry is giving special emphasis on developing infrastructure, ground capacity and skills in the region as well as providing branding and marketing assistance. He revealed that projects worth approximately Rs 200 crore has been sanctioned for these projects.
15 new airports to ensure efficiency
Garima Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, emphasized on the development of connectivity in the region. There are altogether 15 airports ensuring efficiency of travel in the region. She also spoke about the new Greenfield Airport Project which is under development; the aim is to inaugurate it by 15th August ’22. The commencement of operations at Tezu Airport in Arunachal Pradesh is also being discussed.
