Soon, India to have its own island tourist destinations

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 24

India will have its own fabulous tourist destinations like Pattaya and Hawaii islands soon, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assigned a task to the NITI Aayog to first identify such potential landmasses within the country and work out a detailed plan to turn them into places of global attraction.

According to sources, at a recent infrastructure review meeting, the Prime Minister directed NITI Aayog vice-chairperson Arvind Panagariya to work out a detailed plan to develop several of India’s islands into major “global tourist destinations”.

“There are a total of 1,208 islands in India, of which a few of them are even uninhabited. Now, NITI Aayog, in consultation with stakeholder ministries, including Home, Finance, Tourism and Tribal Affairs, form a committee. For the committee, which is most likely to be headed by NITI Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant, the other members will be drawn from consulting ministries and departments,” said an official.

Kant has a vast experience in promoting tourism in his cadre state, where he is credited of giving it a tourist tag line – “Kerala — God’s Own Country”. He has worked as Tourism Secretary in Kerala. His stint as CMD of ITDC and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism in Government of India, were also quite eventful.

The official said, “To have first-hand knowledge of how the already existing popular island destinations of Pattaya in Thailand and Hawaii in the US are developed and managed, the committee members may soon be allowed to make a few visits there.”

However, before that sources indicated that the Committee will first assess the “feasibility and viability” of each of the 1,208 islands both in terms of their possible connectivity and natural grandeur. “The work on this will begin soon, as the Prime Minister has asked the NITI Aayog to give a presentation on the proposal by midway through the next financial year (2017-18).