The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Tourism infrastructure to be developed in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 02, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Tourism infrastructure to be developed in State

Staff Reporter

Tourism Department ties up with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd Tourism Department signs MoU with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited

FORGING TIES: Secretary Tourism Chitra Ramachandran and Managing Director IL & FS D. K. Mittal exchanging files after signing the MoU in the presence of Tourism Minister J. Geeta Reddy at the Secretariat on Wednesday.

HYDERABAD: The Tourism Department has tied up with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), a non-banking financial corporation, to form a special purpose vehicle to take up infrastructure works to give a fillip to tourism in the State.

A Memorandum of Agreement was signed here on Wednesday between Tourism Secretary Chitra Ramachandran and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited Managing Director D.K. Mittal in the presence of Minister for Tourism J. Geeta Reddy.

Tourism projects would be taken up under the public-private partnership mode.

River cruises

Dr. Geeta Reddy pointed out that Andhra Pradesh was endowed with rivers like Godavari and Krishna and several stretches of these rivers had excellent potential for river cruises especially around Papikondalu near Rajahmundry and Bhavani Islands near Vijayawada.

Developing packages

She wanted the agency to develop feasible tourism packages suitable for private sector investment in this sector.

The prospects of sea cruises connecting Visakhapatnam and Andamans and other foreign countries can also be considered.

Private investment

The Government's new tourism policy recognised the importance of inviting private sector investment and new tourism circuits have to be developed and analysed for their financial viability, said Mr. Mittal.

The firm was incorporated with the initial equity participation from banks like UTI, Central Bank of India and HDFC.

It had successfully implemented projects in sectors like roads, water and sanitation, tourism industrial parks etc., across the country.

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