The Karnataka government is planning to introduce a night wildlife safari, the first time in the country, at the Bannerghatta National Park in Bengaluru. For this, the state tourism department will invest Rs 178 crore.

According to a report in Business Standard, K Viswanatha Reddy, Director, Karnataka Tourism mentioned that apart from this, the state tourism department is also planning an Eco-educational Tourism park for Rs 370 crore at Mangalore and two more eco-resorts in Bidar district and Jog Falls in November this year and May 2011, respectively. It will also extend the Golden Chariot, which is the only luxury train in South India, to Hyderabad and other southern states in the third phase. Reddy added that 23 helipads will also come up near all the tourist places in the state. The state tourism department will venture into Heli Tourism and Cruise Tourism in the near future.

“Currently, Karnataka Tourism is ranked fourth in terms of tourist inflow in India. We plan to be positioned as number one by 2011. The tourist inflow to the state in the first five months in 2009 and 2010 was 16 million and 18.8 million in the domestic segment and 103,000 and 164,000 foreign tourists, respectively,” added Reddy.

Jungle and Lodges, a state-owned Ecotourism promoter, recently added two more camps for nature lovers to the existing ten. Each camp can house 40 people. “The state government spends Rs 30 crore every year for the tourism sector. In the last ‘India Investors’ meet, the state tourism department registered around Rs 3,000 crore from the investors,” stated Reddy.