The Hindu : Karnataka News : Huge tourism potential untapped

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Huge tourism potential untapped

M. Raghuram

Mangalore-Lakshadweep tourist link, if opened up, can become a popular route

If opened, the route will give access to six islands
The only coral reef route is used by cargo vessels

MANGALORE: Even as the tourism sector in Mangalore is struggling to get its act together, the potential in the island union territory of Lakshadweep is untouched.

Thanks to the un-responsive administration of the Lakshadweep islands, tourism between Mangalore mainland and Lakshadweep is restricted to visits of cargo vessels occasionally.

Known as the Ivory Coast of India, the route between Lakshadweep and Mangalore is said to have the potential to emerge as top tourist routes. But lack of support from the State Government and the Union Surface Transport Ministry, the link with the Lakshadweep islands by sea has not been achieved.

The only coral reef route to the islands is on the west coast.

Although tourist traffic is heavy between Lakshadweep and Kochi, thanks to Kerala’s tourism policy, many prefer the Mangalore-Lakshadweep route.

The new route, if opened, will make at least half a dozen islands accessible from Mangalore, Karavatti, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Minicoy and six other inhabited islands that are on ancient volcanic rock formations comprising 12 atolls, three reefs and five submerged banks which could rival the Caribbean islands.

Endowed with green belt comprising palm and coconut grooves and expanses of breadfruit trees, these islands make for thickest forest cover.

There were efforts by the local tour operators to offer the tour of Lakshadweep Islands to the people in Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore with Mangalore as a take off point, but all of them have burnt their fingers badly as Karnataka was not able to convince the Centre about the tourist link.

Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada M. Maheshwara Rao told The Hindu that at present, there is a ferry boat operating between the islands and Mangalore. But the boat ride is restricted to only residents of those islands.

They come regularly to the old port, stay for a couple of days, buy groceries and get back home.

Manager of the Old Port in Mangalore Mohan Kudri told The Hindu that the vessel “Sethudeep” that gives regular port call in Mangalore has no record of carrying any tourists from Mangalore to Lakshadweep so far.

The coral reef route, which starts from Goa, can be easily linked with Mangalore, in which case there will be a harmonious road-rail-sea route. The tourism industry will get a big boost if the new coral reef route is opened, according to N. Yogish Bhat, MLA, who studied the Mangalore- Lakshadweep link when he was the chairman of the Legislature Subject Committee on Tourism in S.M. Krishna Government.

One of the major tour operators, on conditions of anonymity, said when one of the luxury liner groups approached the State Government on this, the Government said the group should first build a harbour on a build-operate-transfer basis at the landing port at Lakshadweep Islands which made the cruise company shy away.

One of the knowledgeable persons who came to Mangalore regularly from the islands, Abdul Rehabba, said tourism had assumed importance in Lakshadweep in the past few years, where horticulture was the main source of revenue.

With the increase in tourist traffic on London-Mumbai-Goa-Kochi-Singapore sector, the Centre decided to develop Lakshadweep as a tourist centre.

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