GoanTimes April, 13th 2018 issue

03 Touristic
Friday, April 13, 2018 | www.goantimes.titosgoa.com | 12 Pages
Colva beach
selected under
Centre’s
tourism project
PANAJI: Colva beach has been selected
by the Union ministry of tourism under
the 'Iconic Tourist Sites Development
Project' to boost tourism, community
development and infrastructure.
Colva will be India's only beach which
will be covered under this project along
with 11 other tourist locations across
the country which have been identified
by the Union tourism ministry, the
state tourism department said in a
statement issued on Friday.
Employment generation,
development of the local culture,
occupations, beautification,
infrastructure, provision of facilities
and public amenities are some of the
key objectives of the initiative. Rashmi
Verma, secretary, Union ministry of
tourism chaired a meeting on Friday
with key officials attached to Goa’s
tourism department.
Mumbai-Goa cruise may sail
only in September
Your wait for sailing to Goa from
Mumbai on a cruise may get longer.
The services, which were to
commence in a few weeks, may now
start in September.
The cruise was originally slated to
start in December 2017, but has been
delayed since.
While the Mumbai Port Trust
maintains that services will start this
month itself, the silence and lack of
marketing of tickets tells another story.
"Looking at the progress made, the
sailings should start sometime during the
second half of April," said Sanjay Bhatia,
chairman of Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT).
However, Siddharth Newalkar,
Director of Sea Eagle Cruises, which
would ferry around 400 passengers on
board the ship Angriya on each sailing,
is reluctant to talk about anything
related to Mumbai-Goa sailings.
Officially, a last few clearances from
authorities are left, after which a trip
will be made to Goa as part of 'trial'
before the actual operations begin.
If these procedures are through this
India is working to attract Japanese
travellers, developing Buddhist circuit
As India is reaching new heights in
tourism, the country is also looking to
work on Buddhist tourism. This means
attracting Buddhist countries, including
Japan, in order to boost foreign tourist
arrivals. Apart from organising
International Buddhist conclave, India
is also looking to develop Buddhist
circuit that would connect important
Buddhist sites in the country.
Suman Billa, Joint Secretary, Indian
Ministry of Tourism said, "We are
receiving a minuscule number of
Buddhist tourists, just 0.005 percent
of the total Buddhist population in the
world, despite being a key pilgrimage
destination for millions of practicing
Buddhists around the world. The idea
is, even if we are able to remove one
zero and make it 0.05 percent, that'll
still bring in billions of dollars into our
tourism economy."
According to reports furnished by
tourism ministry officials, five projects
have been sanctioned by India, worth
INR 3.61 billion.
Both India and Japan are looking
to triple the number of Indian and
Japanese tourists in the next five
years, and have been pushing bilateral
travel and tourism. Promoting
Buddhist tourism is one of the many
initiatives to tap into the Japanese
travel industry. In fact, Japanese
tourism office in Tokyo had sponsored
visits of 10 Japanese tour operators,
opinion leaders and even journalists.
They had attended the International
Buddhist Conclave in 2014.
In 2016, the Japanese tourist arrivals
was at a total of 208,847, while the
number stood at only 29,032 back in 1981.
The popular Buddhist sites in the
country where Japanese tourists go
are Nalanda, Kushinagar, Bodhgaya,
Sarnath, Rajgir, Sanchi, Ajanta Caves,
Dharamshala and Dhauli.
month, it is likely that cruise will sail,
said an MbPT official.
"From mid-May, the sea becomes choppy
due to monsoon. It will not be possible to
commence the services, and will have to
wait for the season to get over, which is
only from September," he said.
As per the plans, the ship will sail out
from Mumbai at 6 pm to reach Panaji at
8 am and vice-versa on alternate days.
The intermediate halts are likely to be
at Dighi (Raigad district), Dhabol and
Jaigad (Ratnagiri district), Vijaydurg
and Malvan (Sindhudurg district).
The initial plan involves sailings up
to Goa, thereafter, depending upon the
demand the voyage may be extended
to Cochin. Sailings will happen only
during fair weather, and the vessel
will be berthed at Domestic Cruise
Terminal for its entertainment-cumrestaurant
facilities.
The fare structure is yet to be made
public. However, sources said, it would
be 'affordable' so that even the middle
class people come on board.
[ dnaindia.com ]
To promote heritage
tourism, Indian
Railways to work on
metre-gauge lines
In a move to promote heritage tourism,
Indian Railways is planning to preserve
its five metre gauge tracks, which
were built during the early British
era. Reportedly, Railway Ministry has
asked the zonal railways to check the
operational accessibility of these tracks.
A senior official from the Railway
Ministry said regarding this
development, “As part of the strategy to
preserve the metre-gauge lines, Indian
Railways is planning to preserve few
metre-gauge lines, which have the
potential to attract more tourists.”
Five railway lines have been identified
for the purpose of heritage tourism and
they are — the Visavadar-Talala line
in Gujarat, 42.27 km; Mhow-Patalpani-
Kalakand line in Madhya Pradesh, 16
km; Mavli Junction-Marwar Junction
line in Rajasthan, 162 km; Mahur-
Harangjao line in Assam; 47 km; and
Nanpur-Mailani metre-gauge line in
Uttar Pradesh, 171 km. As per the recent
reports, all four metre-gauge lines are
operational, except the one in Assam.