Bengal is one of those few states of the country that has both hills and a sea coast. If Darjeeling forms the crown of the state, the beauty of Bengal is enhanced by its sea beach, Digha. While Darjeeling is a huge tourist attraction, the sea beach is a bit underrated, primarily because of the way it is fashioned.
However, waves of change are pretty imminent. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had once expressed her desire to refashion Digha as Goa and for the same, the government has taken up several measures to attract not only people from Bengal and the country but also from foreign lands.
Banerjee asked the state Tourism department, Tourism Development Corporation and Digha Sankarpur Development Authority (DSDA) to take up various steps to develop the area.
The seaside tourism spot on the coast of Bay of Bengal would get a ropeway and a toy train network. But the most important development would be a 20-km seafront driveway between Digha and Mandarmani.
Some others schemes, like installing water ATMs in the beach, CCTV for surveillance, beach wi-fi zones and making the area plastic-free are also on the cards, a state government source said.
Digha was developed as a tourist spot by the then Chief Minister Dr B C Roy in 1961. Digha's concrete-like beach was very similar to that of Brighton in England. Dr Roy, during his student days was a frequent visitor to Brighton and thought that a similar beach should be developed in Bengal.
Some local residents believe that there was once a place called Beerkul, which was later named as Digha. 'Beerkul' was referred in Warren Hastings's letter in 1780 as the 'Brighton of the East'.
An English businessman, John Frank Snaith, started living in Digha in 1923 and it was said that the foreigners discovered the place after they had gone through the articles of Snaith. He reportedly convinced the then Bengal Chief Minister B C Roy to develop this place to a beach resort.
The old church at Old Digha, the newly-built Digha Gate, Amrabati Park and of course the sea beaches form a constellation of old and new attractions in the area, thus, mesmerising visitors.
The new driveway, which is being built on the lines of Mumbai's Marine Drive, will substantially decrease the distance between Digha and Mandarmani from the earlier 46 km to 20 km. The driveway would be built parallel to the sea and it would take much lesser time to reach Sankarpur, Tajpur and Mandarmani. It would be a single-lane driveway. DSDA would develop it as double lane in the future. The estimated cost would be around Rs 35 crore.
The Tourism department, on the other hand, is working on bringing up more lodging facilities at places like Digha and New Digha. They are also inviting private investments in the hospitality segment. Digha is also a destination, designated for adventure tourism.
Tt may also be mentioned, that a coastal highway, connecting Bengal to Odisha would be constructed under Centre's Bharatmala Project. The 451.44-km proposed highway, which would connect Digha to Gopalpur of Odisha, is expected to boost the connectivity between two states.