Coastal Tourism The Government proposes to develop cruise and coastal tourism which is one of the growing areas of travel in the country. The Government has taken the following steps in this regard: (i) Foreign flag vessels carrying passengers have been allowed to call at Indian ports for a period of 10 years with effect from 6th February, 2009 without obtaining a licence from Director General of Shipping. (ii) The Ministry of Tourism extends Central Financial Assistance to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations/Central agencies for the development of tourism infrastructure including infrastructure related to development of Cruise Tourism under relevant scheme guidelines subject to availability of funds. The details of projects sanctioned during the last five years for development of cruise tourism infrastructure include development of Cruise Passenger Facilitation Centre at Cochin Port, development of dedicated cruise berthing facilities at Cochin Port, Cruise Passenger Facilitation Centre in the existing Passenger Terminal at Chennai Port and Cruise Terminal Building at Mormugao Port Trust. (iii) Ministry of Tourism has launched a Swadesh Darshan Scheme for Integrated Development of Tourist Circuits around Specific Themes. Coastal Circuit has been identified as one of the themes. The projects sanctioned under the Coastal Circuit are Kakinada Hope Island Konaseema in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2014-15, Beach Circuit Udaipur Digha Shankarpur Tajpur Mandarmani Fraserganj BakkhlaiHenry Island in West Bengal, Sri PottiSriramalu Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and Union Territory of Puducherry in the year 2015-16. The Ministry of Shipping proposes to develop tourism at 78 lighthouses on Public Private Partnership mode. The development of lighthouse is likely to be completed by 2019. This information was given by Minister of State for Shipping, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
