Bengal Government Planning to Set up Eco-Friendly Hotels & Entertainment Arenas in Sundarbans: State Tourism Minister

The West Bengal government is making all efforts to improve the tourism infrastructure in the Sundarbans and has solicited the participation of the private sector in the matter, state tourism minister Indranil Sen told the Assembly on Thursday.

During the question hour, Sen, in his reply to a query, said the government, with the engagement of the private sector, is planning to set up eco-friendly hotels and entertainment arenas around the mangrove forest.

The state, since the TMC’s rise to power in 2011, has introduced some package tours from the city to the Sundarbans using two tourism department vessels that ferry them to the jungles and back.

Sen said the government was also weighing the possibilities of starting houseboat services in the next six months in several large waterbodies, much like the ones in Kashmir.

TMC Govt Reopened 8 Tea Gardens Since Coming to Power in 2011, Labour Minister Tells Assembly

West Bengal labour minister Becharam Manna on Thursday told the Assembly that the TMC government, after coming to power in the state in 2011, re-opened eight of 18 tea gardens that had downed shutters . During the question hour, Manna, while replying to a query, said some of the closed gardens in north Bengal are embroiled in legal tangles and the government was trying to sort the matters. The minister said that houses were being set up for tea garden workers under the ‘Cha Sundari’ programme.

He also stated that the government had been distributing food items, including 35kg rice, among the tea worker families, besides making provisions for their healthcare. Fisheries minister Akhil Giri, during the session, said that the state government is planning to start pisciculture in Nayachar island near Haldia in Purba Midnapur district, maintaining all coastal zone regulations.

The initiative will create job opportunities for the people of the state, Manna pointed out, adding that a cold storage will be built in Haldia for storing the catch and preparing it for export.

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