West Bengal: CM sees Kalimpong as tourist destination

Announcing a series of initiatives to boost tourism in the new district, Mamata said: “We will give thrust to home tourism and several other tourism projects. We all know that the people of Bengal have a soft corner for Darjeeling and a large number of tourists visit the hill station. We have decided to turn Kalimpong into another tourist destination on the lines of Darjeeling. We have decided to relocate the Kalimpong prison and create an open area or a square like Darjeeling’s Mall Road to attract tourists.”

After holding an administrative meeting in Kalimpong, the CM said: “Everyone is very happy with the new district. All officials were present at today’s meeting. We had very fruitful discussions. We had positive discussions regarding developmental projects, which will be taken up in the new district.”

On observing Buddha Purnima as a state holiday, she said: “As people here are passionate about Buddha Purnima, we have decided to declare it as a state holiday. All our Buddhist communities are happy with this decision.” Senior officials said the state government has also decided to grant Rs 2 lakh each to 150 clubs in the hills for development projects.

On Tuesday, Mamata had announced a slew of development projects for Kalimpong and said that a Rs 220-crore road link project would be taken up to connect Kalimpong with Sikkim via the old Silk Route. She had added that a Rs 50-crore water supply project would also be taken up soon to address Kalimpong’s water scarcity problem.