Thiruvananthapuram: For Kerala, it seems, the road to attracting tourists is through water and air. The state is building its water transport infrastructure to squeeze the most out of tourism, its fastest-growing revenue stream. Besides working on a hovercraft traffic network for its backwaters in Kollam, Alapuzha, Kottayam and Kochi — the state’s tourism backbone — it is also looking at seaplane connectivity for the main tourist destinations.
It is setting up a R300-crore seaplane company under the public-private partnership or PPP model. The proposed company would set up terminals alongside water bodies.
At present, there are many tourists who fly in and out of Kochi without touching down at the famed Kumarakom backwaters because of road traffic congestion. At times, even a trip along the Vembanad backwaters, India's longest lake, is cut short due to road traffic. The backwaters of Kerala are among the 50 “must-see in a lifetime” destinations that National Geographic had prescribed. In 2011-12, Kerala Tourism had secured about R17,000 crore in revenue mainly because of its backwater tourism.
“There is no need for runways and land acquisition, that's the chief attraction of the seaplane project proposal,” Kerala tourism miniser AP Anil Kumar told FE. “They would need roughly 100 metres’ space in water bodies to take off and land, depending on the weight and passenger capacity.”
05/04/12 Sarita Varma/Financial Express
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