The East Godavari district administration is planning one more wooden bridge and a watchtower in addition to the existing ones at Coringa mangroves, besides arranging a couple of houseboats and eco-tourism museum to attract tourists.
Announcing this here on Sunday, Collector H. Arun Kumar said Rs. 80 crore would be spent on tourism development in the district under the ‘Swadesh Darshan’ scheme of the Central government.
“The idea is to develop a tourism circuit connecting Kakinada Beach, Hope Island, Coringa mangroves and Konaseema under the scheme. Since Coringa is the second largest mangrove in the country after Sundarbans in West Bengal, there is a huge potential here on tourism front,” he said, adding that equal importance would be accorded to developing Hope Island into a tourist destination.
Plans are afoot to arrange wooden tent accommodations in Hope Island and allocate funds for conducting events like laser shows for the tourists. A sum of Rs. 15 crore has exclusively been allocated to Hope Island.
“We are taking up an inteated project for the development of Hope Island and Coringa, under which tourist cottages are under construction at Coringa. Similarly, we are planning to arrange water fountains, water sports and food courts at Hope Island for attracting tourists,” Mr. Arun Kumar said. A sum of Rs. 90 lakh will be spent on the construction of the watch tower and the wooden bridge in Coringa. Conservator of Forests N. Ravi Kumar, District Forest Officer M. Srinivasa Rao and Kakinada RDO B.R. Ambedkar were present.
Tourism circuit connecting Kakinada Beach, Hope Island, Coringa mangroves and Konaseema planned
