Tourist hotspots in Bengal beckon revellers during Holi break

Kolkata: With massive infrastructure development undertaken in the past six years by the Mamata Banerjee government in tourism sector, tourist spots in Bengal have turned out to be ideal destinations for the four-day-long holiday in the coming week.

Soon after coming to power, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed the state tourism department to take necessary steps to ensure that Bengal comes up as the number one tourism destination

across the globe.

It was Banerjee's brainchild to organise the immersion rally on Red Road soon after Durga Puja and it has been promoted all across the world and different parts of the country to attract tourists. At the same time, development of necessary infrastructure including roads, basic amenities, better lodging facilities have also been carried out, besides promoting the local art forms.

There are holidays for four consecutive days for a large section of people in the coming week. The holiday will start with Holi and Doljatra on March 1 and 2 followed by Saturday and Sunday. People who love to visit different places didn't want to let go of the opportunity of four-day-long holiday and planned trips to different places.

Visiting Shantiniketan during Holi always bears a special significance. So, like all the previous years, people from all across the state will pour into Shantiniketan during Holi.

But the most interesting part is that unlike other years, a large number of people will visit places in districts including Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore and Cooch Behar.

As a result, hotel owners in tourist spots including Mukutmanipur, Ayodhya Hills and Jhargram have been getting several calls to enquire if rooms are available for accommodation during those four days.

According to a senior official of the state Tourism department, they have witnessed a change in the preferences of people of the state. Earlier, they always thought of visiting hill stations or any other beautiful places in the neighbouring states during such long weekend.

But for the past few years, the officials are finding that more people are taking interest in visiting the tourist places in Bengal and it is just because of the equal development carried out by the present government on all the spots.

A large number of people have also chosen Digha and Mandarmoni as their all time favourite to visit during Holi . Many are also going to visit Darjeeling and other tourist spots in North Bengal.