The Hindu : Karnataka News : Rs. 148 crore for tourism development

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 05, 2008
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka

Rs. 148 crore for tourism development

Staff Correspondent

DAVANGERE: Five colleges each from five universities in the State would be given a grant of Rs. 80 lakh for starting a postgraduate course in Tourism, director of the department C. Somashekar has said.

Participating at the “Bagali Utsav” at Bagali in Harpanahalli taluk on Thursday, Mr. Somashekar said the idea behind starting postgraduate courses in tourism was to produce professional manpower to develop tourist centres in the State and to manage and improve places of tourist importance. He said the Department of Tourism had decided to join hands with other departments io to organise cultural events at such places, in order to attract more tourists. He said each place of tourist importance, if developed properly, would provide employment to a large number of people.

Project for Hampi

For the first time, the Tourism Department had been granted Rs. 148 crore this year, he said. Of this, Rs. 4 crore had been earmarked for organising cultural festivals. He said Rs. 1 crore had been sanctioned to develop the Soolekere tank in Chennagiri taluk of Davangere district while Rs. 50 lakh had been allocated to develop infrastructure at Uchangidurga, a historical place. A project had been prepared to further improve the facilities at Hampi.

The department had decided to provide toilets and bathrooms at all tourist centres in the State this year, for which funds had been reserved, Mr. Somashekar said. The former Deputy Chief Minister M.P. Prakash called upon the youth to strive for the all-round development of the State and underlined the need to know history. Writer Sadashivappa spoke on the history of Bagali. Headquarters assistant to the Deputy Commissioner Bettasurmutt was present.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka