The tourist inflow from the eastern region to Jharkhand has been virtually nil since the suspension of direct train services from Howrah to Ranchi, via Tatanagar in Jamshedpur, soon the Jnaneswari Express train derailment in West Bengal’s Midnapore district on May 28, 2010.

Jharkhand’s tourism sector is being neglected after a separate statehood achieved, bifurcating Bihar on November 15, 2010.The main reason behind the failure in progress was non-induction of professional people in the state government’s tourism directorate.

Sources interested in tourism alleged that lack of experience and ideas of the incumbents at the helm of affairs had been responsible for the bottleneck in the development of the state’s tourism sector. 

Official statistic revealed that the presence of domestic tourists in Jharkhand has not been satisfactory for last ten years.

In a belated decision the state government recently appointed a professional from the Indian Forest Service (IFS) as director of tourism.

Siddharth Tripathi, who joined as director of tourism, in an interview to Business Standard said that arrival of tourists at attractive spots like Netarhat, Betla, Ghatshila in the state has been nil after suspension of direct train services from Howrah to Ranchi via Tatanagar.

However, the director claimed that in India’s tourist map, the position of Jharkhand was 15th over the states of Orissa and Chhatisgarh.

Tripathi said that the presence of tourists in Jharkhand up to February in the current financial year (2011-12) had been 27.5 million against 24 million in 2009-10. He expected the year 20011-12 might be a “turnaround year” for the department of tourism.

The director said Central government’s mega circuit project for Ranchi with an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore has been sanctioned by the Union government and the State-run India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) will implement the project.

He said to attract both domestic and foreign tourists, 13 projects had been sanctioned during 2003-04 to 2008-09 at a total cost of Rs 2,086.17 lakh. The projects have been completed in the financial year 2011-12. The tourism department has other projects numbering 15 those are tourist complexes in different tourist spots. The state sponsored projects were sanctioned during 2004-05 to 2008-09 with an estimated cost of Rs 2,433.83 lakhs The projects are likely to be completed within this financial year, said tourism director.

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News