Churulia: State to set up tourism centre at Kazi Nazrul’s birthplace
Kolkata: The Tourism department is coming up with a tourism centre at Churulia, the birthplace of eminent Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and the resting place of his wife Pramila Devi in West Burdwan. The project is expected to be completed by 2025.
“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on December 22, 2023, at the inauguration of the Christmas Festival at Allen Park in Park Street, had expressed her desire for developing a tourism centre at Churulia. We roped in architects from the West Bengal Heritage Commission and have already prepared the DPR for restoration and beautification of Churulia.
The basic heritage aspect of the place will be kept intact during restoration. The tender for the project has been floated,” said Indranil Sen, state Tourism minister during the question-answer session at the state assembly on Thursday. Many of the manuscripts, medallions and other belongings of the poet are preserved at Nazrul Academy in the Churulia village. Nearby, there is a college bearing the poet’s name. Nazrul Academy was established in 1958.
Speaking about the boost in homestay tourism, the minister said that presently the state boasts of 2600-odd registered homestays across the state. “We came with the homestay policy and the number of homestays have gone up from 200 to 2600,” Sen added.
The Tourism department provides an incentive of Rs 1 lakh to each of the registered homestays across the state so funds can be utilised for upgradation of infrastructure.
A stringent pre-condition for registration is that the owner has to stay in that particular facility. A minimum of three rooms is a precondition for availing the state’s incentive.
The details of the registered homestays gets uploaded on the website of the Tourism department and booking chances increase automatically.
The minister also invited BJP legislator Biswanath Karak and others to visit the ‘Bhorer Alo’ tourism property at Gajoldoba near Siliguri. Karak had praised the homestay policy of the state government.
