Rs 300 cr tourist hub to come up in Bhorer Alo: Goutam Deb

He called this to be the biggest hub in the country and said that the estimated cost of the project would be around Rs 300 crore of which Rs 200 crore would be spent to improve infrastructure, the area of the hub is 208 acres.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has renamed the area as Bhorer Alo. Tourists can enjoy a sight of Kanchenjunga on a bright sunny day, river Teesta Torsa and forest. 

The place is likely to be a major tourist destination in the state by 2017. Development will be carried out in phases, Goutam Deb said.

The state tourism department handed over the Letter of Intent to two persons who will construct budget hotels at the site, at the Bengal Global Business meet held in the city in January.

A star hotel will come up. There will be a mini golf course and facility for adventure sports along with rafting on river Teesta.

Deb said North Bengal has tremendous potential as a tourist destination.Earlier, Darjeeling was the only tourist spot; it was developed by the British. In the late 1970’s, Mirik came up as the second tourist spot.

Sikkim has developed as a major tourist spot over the years with thousands of people from West Bengal visiting the area.

Deb said the safari which had been started in North Bengal recently is attracting crowd.The state government has taken a special drive to showcase the tourist spots.

The turnover of both Indian and foreign tourists has gone up in 2015-16.The tourist lodges in many areas have been refurnished and in places like Jhargram, new tourist lodges have come up.

The booking can be done online.

The department is also exploring the tremendous potential of religious tourism.A senior official of the department said the setting up of Bakreshwar Development Board would help to build the infrastructure of the area and would also improve the tourism potential as thousands of people visit Tarapith temple, the hot spring in Bakreshwar and the mama- bhagne hill.

He said to facilitate tourists, guest houses and lodges by the state government had come up in the districts.