Minister for Tourism and Culture, Kandula Durgesh (centre), Minister for Minorities Welfare N. Md. Farook and District Collector G. Rajakumari at the Chinnacheruvu park in Nandyal town on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Minister for Tourism, Cinematography and Culture, Kandula Durgesh, has announced a comprehensive temple tourism package for the Nandyal district, the home of many ancient and prominent temples such as Srisailam, Mahanandi, Ahobilam, Yaganti, Nandavaram and Omkaram.
Addressing a media conference after visiting important tourist projects along with the Minister for Minorities Welfare, N. Md. Farook, and district Collector G. Rajakumari at Nandyal on Sunday, Mr. Durgesh said that apart from the circuit of temples, the district also boasted of Belum, the second longest cave in Asia, besides Bilwaswargam and Valmiki caves. He indicated the need to identify land in the vicinity of the sites to build resorts to facilitate tourist stays.
The Minister announced a plan to modernise the tourism guest house in Srisailam, which has 79 rooms with a restaurant. He also announced the plan to modernise them, apart from building 42 more rooms, involving a total financial outlay of โน14.85 crore.
A โน2.5 crore project has been sanctioned for Ahobilam with the central governmentโs support under โChallenge-based destination development, a sub-scheme of Swadesh Darshanโ.
โPlans are afoot to build 31 more rooms and four dormitories at Ahobilam with โน5 croreโ, he said.
While announcing to bring the tourism, endowments, and forest departments together to work in tandem to bring in investments, the Minister mooted exploration of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) wherever possible to overcome the financial crunch. Mr. Farook appealed to Mr. Durgesh to explore all possible avenues to tap the districtโs tourism potential.
