20 kiosks for sale of souvenirs at tourist locations to come up by September 30

kolkata: The state MSME & Textiles department on Thursday directed the concerned District Magistrates (DM) to take necessary measures for the operationalisation of kiosks for the display and sale of souvenirs at tourist locations across the state by September 30, ahead of the Durga Puja.

At least 20 such locations, including two in Kolkata, have already been identified for setting up such souvenir kiosks.

Rajesh Pandey, Principal Secretary of state MSME & Textiles department has asked the DMs to immediately take up construction work of these kiosks by following the necessary tender process through Zilla Parishad/any other agency in the district.

About 5 such kiosks will be set up by the Tourism department at Alipurduar, Darjeeling, Murshidabad, South 24-Parganas and Jalpauguri. Two such kiosks of Tantuja will come up at Tarapith temple area in Birbhum and also at Cooch Behar Rajbari. Three kiosks will be of the West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board at Berhampore in Murshidabad, Dheusagar in Digha and four under the state Rural Livelihood Mission (Panchayats department) will come up at Bishnupur in Bankura, Bolpur in Birbhum, Mirik in Darjeeling and Nabadwip in Nadia, two such kiosks by Forest department will come up at Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar and Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, two by BBMC (Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation) at Kolkata and Kalimpong while one by Manjusha will be set up at Gangasagar in South 24-Parganas and another solitary one by Resham Shilpi at Esplanade, Kolkata.

It has been decided that the marketing staff for manning the kiosks will be provided by WBSRLM who will also bear the salary for the first three months after which the respective organisations (parastatals) will manage from their retention of sales.

There will be a standard design for the uniform separate for men and women of all the marketing staff which will be provided by BBMC.