Port Blair, Jan 04: The Hon’ble Lt. Governor, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM has called upon the people of the islands, to keep the environment neat and tourism friendly. “Tourists like those places which are safe, beautiful with neat and clean environment”, he said while inaugurating the 16th Islands Tourism Festival-2012 as the chief guest at ITF ground here this evening. Tourists should be treated as guests and be helped in time of need, particularly if stranded during bad weather, during which they should be provided all basic facilities without extra expenditure. This unique hospitality will attract tourists and more and more tourists will visit our islands. We need to make these islands the best tourist destination, he said.
The Lt. Governor said that beside beautiful beaches, the islands have adventure sports, scuba diving and snorkeling facilities. The unique transport facility of sea-plane attracts tourists towards these islands and many states are striving to have such transportation facilities, he said. To promote tourism, films have been made on sea-plane, Andaman Tourism, Havelock and Neil Island, Underwater marine life and historical sites, he said. There has been significent increase in the number of flights from Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. Presently four flights are operating directly from Delhi to Andaman. Besides tourism related important projects and eco-friendly tourism sites are being developed, he said.
Referring to the festival, the Lt. Governor said that the festival has become a favourite annual event which highlights unique cultural heritage and developmental activities of the islands. It promotes the local talents in music and dances and also brings cultural groups from mainland such as State Tourism Corporation of Goa Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Meghalaya and Karnataka are participating for the first time, to familiarize their culture to our people, he said. The people of North and Middle Andaman like Diglipur, Rangat and Long Island will also have the opportunity to witness cultural programmes while Carnic festival is also being organized from January 07 to 11, 2012, he said. Arrangements have been made for regular musical programme at Netaji Stadium. Dr. Palesh Sen’s Euphoria and Hasya Kavi Sammelan will form part of the festival besides military pageantry, Police entertainment team and the cultural groups from Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Odhisha and West Bengal will perform during the festival, he said. Nicobarese, Karen, Ranchi and Bangla dances were also presented by the local artists of the islands at the inaugural ceremony, he said.
The Lt. Governor lighted the lamp to inaugurate the festival. He also released four films on Andaman Tourism, Havelock and Neil Island, Underwater marine life, historical sites by the Tourism Department and a documentary film on Runway on the sea by Shri Naresh Chandra Lall.
The First Lady, Smt. Bhawanee Singh and the Chief Secretary, Shri Shakti Sinha also graced the occasion.
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