Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Governor (Retd) Gen J J Singh has said the state has huge scope for religious tourism, wildlife & eco tourism, cultural tourism and adventure tourism and once tourism sector is developed, it would facilitate in providing livelihood to a large number of people in the state.
This was stated by the Governor during a meeting with state Tourism Minister Pema Khandu who called on governor at Raj Bhawan on Monday last. Discussion was held on various issues that needed to be addressed on priority basis to harness the full tourism potential of the state, official sources said here on Wednesday.
Underscoring the need for exposure tours organised for youth and entrepreneurs in Tourism sector, the Governor advised the minister to initiate programmes for capacity building in the service sector.
Citing the example of Ganga Lake project here, the Governor suggested for taking up tourism projects under public private partnership (PPP) mode and stressed the need for creation of more tourist circuits and home stay facilities, sources said.
Gen Singh, who facilitated the launching of some projects for the State, including the State Institute of Hotel Management (SIHM), Catering Technology & Applied Nutrition at Banderdewa, the Adventure Tourism Camping Destination site at Jote and the tourism counter at Guwahati Airport for augmenting tourism activities in Arunachal Pradesh, advised Mr Khandu to expedite the implementation of these Raj Bhavan initiatives.
Enquiring about the progress of adventure tourism camping destination site at Jote, the Governor suggested the construction of a restaurant in the area.
He also asked the minister to speed up the work of Tourism Counter at Guwahati Airport.
The tourism minister informed that he proposed training programmes for the local entrepreneurs and kept fund for such programmes.
He also informed the Governor that eleven projects under the Indian Tourist Development Corporation (ITDC) in Bhalukpong Tawang route had been taken over by the state government for proper implementations.
Responding to the Governor’s query on the starting of the management courses at the SIHM, Principal Secretary, Tourism G N Sinha briefed him that advertisements for core faculties would be issued very soon and hinted at starting the first batch under Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), sources added. (UNI)