The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, an arm of the Andhra Pradesh government, would organise Durga Puja for the second consecutive year to attract Bengali tourists to the state.
"Last year at the instance of travel agents, we had organised five Durga Pujas in Andhra Pradesh so that Bengali tourists visiting the state during that time were able to offer prayers and enjoy the festive mood even when not at home," chairman and managing director of APTDC Chandana Khan said.
She said that like last year, the tourism department would organise Durga Pujas at Vizag, Arakku, Dindi, Vijaywada and Suryalanka beach in the state where concentration of Bengali tourists are high.
"We would ship idols from Kumartuli and take priests and dhakis (drummmers) from Bengal and the entire arrangement is overseen by the corporation," Khan told reporters here today.
This year, an additional Durga Puja would be held at Hyderabad city, Khan said noting that the volume of Bengali tourists visiting Andhra Pradesh was rising steadily.
To cater to the rush, the government is setting up three-star resorts for them.
The tourism department was also attracting an investment of Rs 1,000 crore through the PPP route for developing world class infrastructure at Vizag and the Centre too had given Rs 200 crore for the development of tourism in the state, Khan said.
To a query, she said that Maoist movement in the state had been contained and the inflow of tourists had not been affected because of that.
