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Old Posted Feb 6, 2007, 8:08 AM
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sanjupalayat sanjupalayat is offline
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sarovaram project


KOZHIKODE: The long-awaited Sarovaram tourism project (till recently known as Swapna Nagari project) is ready for launch, said Minister for Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at a programme held here on Saturday to install office-bearers of the Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI).

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan would lay the stone for the project on February 6, the Minister said. He said the project would be one of the several programmes the LDF Government intended to launch in the coming days to give a boost to development of tourism in North Kerala. He said Swapna Nagari (since renamed Sarovaram) project was delayed as the officials concerned repeatedly raised objections against its implementation.

The Minister was speaking at a function to install publisher N.E. Balakrishnan Marar as president and P.T.S. Unni as honorary secretary of CCCI.

Programmes aimed at the development of Wayanad as a major tourism destination were also in the pipeline. Wayanad would be developed as a major tourism centre like Idukki, he said.

He said home-stay accommodation facilities should be improved in Wayanad where there was a large turnout of foreign tourists. The Government had offered 15 per cent subsidy on investments in the tourism sector with a view to encouraging tourism development in north Kerala. In the rest of Kerala, it was only 10 per cent, he said at a function to install publisher N.E. Balakrishnan Marar as president and P.T.S. Unni as honorary secretary of CCCI.

The Minister also stated that the government would try to evolve a consensus to exempt the tourism sector from hartals.

Emphasising the LDF Government's commitment to retain the presence of the Government-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) sector while encouraging private investments in the tourism sector, the Minister said a Kerala House would soon be constructed in Chennai .

The Minister also said planners should think big when it came to development. "We are only talking about doubling of rail track. We should be asking for development of four-lane railway tracks," he remarked.

The Minister's announcements on tourism development in North Kerala came in response to suggestions for development of the region placed before the Minister in a memorandum by CCCI at the function. Minister for Forests Benoy Viswom; A.Pradeep Kumar and M.K. Premnath, MLAs also spoke at the function.

Shortly after taking over as the CCCI president , Mr. Balakrishna Marar said he would try to improve facilities at Kozhikode Medical College and establish new premises for CCCI., besides seeking solutions to people's problems.

Among the demands that the CCCI has made in its memorandum to the Minister is for a separate Minister for commerce in the State to take special care of issues of the merchant community.
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