The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Plan to promote tourism in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Plan to promote tourism in State

T.S. Shankar

Proposals sought from Collectors to strengthen infrastructure in tourist centres

CHENNAI: The State Tourism Department has sought new project proposals from Collectors to strengthen infrastructure in tourist centres, and to aggressively promote eco, beach, medical, educational and youth tourism.

“My priority areas will be to improve customer satisfaction levels at all the 56 Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) hotels and improve the organisation’s profitability,” said M. Rajaram, who assumed charge as the Director of Tourism last week. Mr. Rajaram, who is also the TTDC Managing Director, told The Hindu that he had also asked for a status report from the respective Collectors on ongoing tourism projects to expedite their implementation.

Monitoring panel

A high-level monitoring committee, headed by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, has been constituted to ensure speedy completion of the projects..

“Problems, if any, in the implementation of the schemes can be brought to my notice so as to enable me to sort them in coordination with the monitoring committee of the Chief Minister’s office.

The Government is also planning to institute a tourism award for the best performing district,” he added.

The TTDC, he added, has decided to introduce a tourist train ‘Southern Splendour’ at an estimated cost of Rs. 40 crore. While the Governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry would contribute Rs. 20 crore, the Southern Railways and the Union Tourism Ministry would give Rs.10 crore each to meet the project cost of the tourist train.

Mr. Rajaram said that in order to tone up the efficiency levels of the TTDC employees and senior officers an in-house training programme had been organised.

The Anna Institute of Management has agreed to conduct a training programme for tourist guides. The first in the series of such training would be inaugurated by the State Tourism Minister, N. Suresh Rajan, on July 11.

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