Darjeeling Tea and Tourism Festival (DTTF) kicked-off 2013 -14

Darjeeling,24 Dec 2013: The nine day long, Darjeeling Tea and Tourism Festival (DTTF) kicked-off to an grand opening at the Chowrastha in Darjeeling, today. The event is a joint venture between the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and the state government aimed at boosting the tourism of the region. In the opening ceremony of the third edition of the event, GTA announced a slew of new projects to develop and improve the tourism infrastructure in the Hills.

 “The DTTF is an endeavor to promote tourism of this region. It is also aimed to safe guard the culture and tradition of Darjeeling. For this, we have lined up a slew of development projects,” said Sonam Bhutia, the GTA tourism executive director. The tourism executive director said priority would be given to ease traffic which is a major cause of concern, presently.

 “One of the basic requirements for providing better facilities to the tourist coming to the Hills is to have a proper parking space and better traffic system. We have started work on four parking lots in the three Hills sub-divisions. This apart, we have also asked the state government to fund mini parking lots in various tourist spots,” Bhutia said. The GTA will also identify areas in the rural belt of the Hills to promote eco-friendly and village tourism. “We want tourism to flourish even in the rural areas.

Facilities like home stays and eco-tourism needs to be promoted. For this we have started the process of identifying rural areas through the block and Sabhasad levels. We will grant interest free soft loans to interested villagers to provide basic amenities like toilets and clean rooms to tourists. We will have a profit sharing of 80:20,” said Bhutia, adding the home stays are expected to be operational in October next year.

The GTA tourism department is also hoping to start adventure tourism in a big way. Presently, activities like paragliding and rafting is operational and it is expected that the GTA will soon start zorbing ball, kayaking and hot air balloon at a regular basis.

The GTA will also come with four new ropeways in the Hills. Two will come up in Darjeeling from Batasia to Rock Garden and Tukvar to Goke. In Kurseong the ropeway will be constructed from Giddepahar to Rohini and in Kalimpong from Delo to Relli. “We have got the green signal from the Tourism Finance Corporation of India for four ropeways to be started in the three hill subdivision. Construction work will start within July next year,” said Bhutia. With this year’s emphasis on local culture and tradition, the first day of the DTTF saw folk dances and songs in the morning, which continued till the evening.(EOIC)