Category: India

Manjarabad – a mystical fort at Sakleshpur in Karnataka

Away from the hustles of the Bengaluru City, between the Bengaluru-Mangaluru highway, stands at an altitude of 3200 meters, the star shaped fort built by Tippu Sultan in 1792 – the Manjarabad Fort. The fort is built in 1792, when Tippu was establishing his sovereignty over Mysore, fighting against the British East India Company. At this time even the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad had aligned with the British. The Sultan wanted to make the highway between Mangalore and Coorg secure for his expansion programmes. He built the fort with the help French engineers, as he was in the ... Read more

Karnataka Tourism to organize multi-city roadshows

Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) and the Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka will organise Multi City Road-shows in the months of March & April, 2019 to promote Karnataka Tourism and Travel Industry. Various tourist places, hotels, resorts, home-stays, Tour operators and other service providers from Karnataka will take part in the promotion campaigns. Mumbai, Goa, New Delhi & Lucknow are few selected cities for hosting road-shows on the following dates. This exclusive B2B Road-show will have over 20 travel agents from Karnataka interacting with more than 100 travel agents and tour operators of the respective cities. The main ... Read more

Multi-crore highway and development projects coming up in Uttarakhand

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, will inaugurate and lay the foundation stones for NH and Development works Namami Gange project at Haridwar in Uttarakhand today 21st February 2019. The Minister will lay the foundation stone for seven NH projects worth Rs 5,555 Crore. These include  the balance work under package one on 14.948 km long road from Haridwar to Laltappar on Haridwar-Dehradun section of NH-58 and 72, to be built at a cost of Rs 350 crore, the balance work under package two on 22.2 km long road from Laltappar to Mahkampur on Haridwar-Dehradun section of ... Read more

India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) is coming up in Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Corridor

India’s first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) is coming up in Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Corridor. The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal, which include construction of RRTS, covering a distance of 82.15 km (68.03 km elevated and 14.12 km underground) at a total completion cost of Rs 30,274 crores Photo for representative purpose only Cabinet also approved Central financial assistance of Rs 5,634 crore in the form of grant and sub-ordinate debt. Decision on institutional arrangement and legal framework for the project and conditions of sanction of the project also has been taken. The RRTS is a first-of-its-kind, rail-based, high-speed regional transit ... Read more

Cabinet approves Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase II

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has approved proposal for the implementation of Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II, The Phase-II of the project comprises of two corridors of total length 28.254km i.e. Corridor 1 from Motera Stadium to Mahatma mandir for a length of 22.838 km and Corridor 2 from GNLU to GIFT City for a length of 5.416 km at a total completion cost of Rs 5,384.17 crore. The cabinet also approved the institutional arrangement and legal framework for the project and conditions of sanction of the project. Implementation of the project is expected to provide the ... Read more

Tourism ministry target 5 million visitors to the Statue of Unity by next year

National Tourism Advisory Council  will meet on 21st – 22nd February 2019 at the site of the newly made Statue of Unity, Kevadiya in Gujarat. The objective of the brainstorming would be how to achieve a target of 5 million visitors to the Statue of Unity by next year. The world’s tallest statue of the iconic leader Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel is 182 meter tall. K J Alphons, Union Tourism Minister, will chair the meeting. Apart from regular members of the NTAC, experts from the hospitality, travel and tour industry have been invited to attend the meeting.  The National Tourism Advisory ... Read more

Meghalaya government seeks to adopt Responsible Tourism Model

Meghalaya government reiterates the importance of Responsible Tourism in the state on the increased tourist footfall in the state during last year. As per reports, inbound tourism has recorded 80 per cent growth in the tourism during the last 10 years – which is a thing to celebrate, at the same time arouse the thoughts on responsible tourism. Dawki River A one-day workshop was organized by Outlook Responsible Tourism in association with the Meghalaya Government to discuss the issues of responsible tourism. Speaking on the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Rebbeca V Suchiang mentioned the huge footfall of tourists into the ... Read more

Luxury tourism projects in Andaman awaits environmental clearance

A panel of Union environment ministry made recommendation for clearance of two luxury tourism projects consisting of tents and tree houses in two of the Andaman Islands that are in the ecologically fragile zone and in the vicinity of turtle nesting sites. The ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) for projects related to coastal regulation zone (CRZ) discussed three projects in three islands for the second time. They made recommendation for two of them — at Lalaji Bay on Long Island and at Smith Island to get clearance from the Island Protection Zone (IPZ) with some riders. A third project in ... Read more

Goa plans to make registration of hotels mandatory

With an objective to curtail the mushrooming illegal hotels, the Goa government is planning to make registration of hotels with the tourism department mandatory. It was announced by Goa tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar  after chairing a meeting of tourism industry stakeholders  at the secretariat. “Whether big or small, all hotels will have to get registered with the tourism department or face legal action. We will impose a fine for non-registration and can even file court case,” said the tourism minister. The minister also noted that compulsory registration would also help the tourism department correctly ascertain the number of tourist arrivals. ... Read more

Karnataka Tourism to set up a Miniature Park in Mysuru

The Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) has plans to set up a Miniature Park with an objective to attract more visitors to tourist spots in Mysuru. Mysore Palace The walk-through park of miniature models has been planned to be setup on the Mysuru-Bengaluru National Highway close to the city. It is reported that the land for the same will be identified soon so that tourists, can have an idea about the places they are going to visit before seeing the actual attractive sites in Mysuru. The park will likely have hand-crafted models of tourist destinations, such as Chamundi Hills, ... Read more

India’s semi-high speed train ‘Vande Bharat Express’ to make its maiden run today

India’s much-awaited locally manufactured semi high-speed train ‘Vander Bharat Express’ (coded as Train 18), will make its maiden run on 15th February 2019.  The train is built by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of Chennai under PM’s ‘Make in India’ programme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the train on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route from the New Delhi Railway Station. However, there will not be any festivities and the train will run without any flower decorations, on the event of terror attack in Pulwama, Kashmir last night. A two-minute silence will also be observed before the launch in memory of CRPF ... Read more

Mughal style Charbagh garden is coming up near Taj Mahal

Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture and Environment, laid the Foundation Stone of Taj  View Garden on the Taj Corridor Area between the Agra Fort and Taj Mahal in Agra on 14th February 2019. The Taj View Garden is being developed on the Mughal period’s Charbagh garden pattern by the Archaeological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The main purpose is to increase greenery by enormous plantation around the Taj Mahal. It will not only help to reduce the pollution around the Taj Mahal but also provide a pleasant view to the visitors. The Minister also ... Read more

Delhi Tourism organizes Garden Tourism Festival from 15th February

Delhi Tourism is organizing the 32rd Garden Tourism Festival between February 15 and 17 at the Garden of Five Senses to “celebrate spring and its myriad hues”. Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister & Minister of Tourism, Govt of Delhi, will inaugurate the event on 15 Feb at 4:00 p.m. from Last year’s festival Delhi Tourism stated that the festival was being held to create awareness about the environment and showcase the rich floriculture of Delhi. The event’s theme is ‘Plants-Lifeline for Everyone’ and the organizers hope to emphasize the importance of plants in one’s home. The festival brings together various ... Read more

AYUSH Minister launches ‘e-aushadi’ portal

Shripad Yesso Naik , Minister of State for AYUSH, launched the e-AUSHADHI portal, for online licensing of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy drugs and related matters on 13th February  at New Delhi. Addressing the gathering Naik said that this e-AUSHADHI portal is intended for increased transparency, improved information management facility, improved data usability and increased accountability. “Timelines will be fixed for processing of application through this portal with SMS and e-mail status updates at each step of the process. This initiative of the Ministry of AYUSH is a reflection of our Government’s commitment towards e-governance, ease of doing business and ... Read more

Central Government sanctions Rs 361.97 crores for five Buddhist Circuit projects

The central government has sanctioned Rs 361.97 crore for five projects Buddhist Circuit programme of the Uninon Ministry, which connects the heritage sites with significance of Buddhism across the country. It was informed by the Union Tourism Minister, KJ Alphons in the Lok Sabha. The Ministry of Tourism has identified Buddhist Circuit as one of the fifteen thematic circuits for development under Swadesh Darshan Scheme. The Buddhist Circuit projects are in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, connecting the Buddhist centers in each states. Development of Buddhist Circuit in Sanchi-Satna-Rewa-Mandsaur-Dhar, Madhya Pradesh will be implemented with cost ... Read more