The Tourism Department will soon handover the new properties at Old Distillery, Old Port Complex and Arts and Crafts Village to private parties for starting various ventures.
Addressing a press conference to announce the starting of a three-day food festival at Old Port Complex, Minister for Public Works K. Lakshminarayanan said the tenders inviting private players to manage the properties at Old Distillery and Crafts Village had already been floated.
The new buildings at the distillery would be given to private entrepreneurs to start hotel cum entertainment centres. The suites with kitchens built in the Tamil, Kerala and Andhra styles at the crafts village would also be given to private players for their management. The old warehouses at the Old Port have been converted into conference halls. They would also be tendered soon, inviting people to manage the halls, he said.
“All properties will be tendered on a revenue sharing mode with private ventures. The government is keen to promote tourism by involving private firms. The Tourism Department will act as a facilitator to promote activities to attract more tourists,“ Mr. Lakshminarayanan, who also handles the tourism portfolio, said. The government was also in process of appointing a consultant to promote 100 acres of land at Manapet for tourism activities, he added.
On the food festival starting on Friday, he said around 30 stalls would be put up at the Old Port offering cuisines of different varieties. Tourism Secretary T. Arun was also present.
