Asian Development Bank to promote Religious & Water Tourism in Punjab
Construction of mono raill to connect Raja Sansi International airport with Golden Temple.
Sep 10, 07 | 8:08 am
Reporting By M.,M.Khanna, Travel Journalist C/O "indianewscalling.com"
CHANDIGARH SEPTEMBER 8:A project to connect Sri Guru Ram Das Inter-National Airport at Raja Sansi and Holy Sri Harmandir Sahib ( Golden Temple ) with a Mono-rail and building world class infrastructure for the proposed Mohali International Airport form the highlights of the Asian Development Bank (ADB ) projects to promote Religious and Water Tourism in Punjab.
A high powered 3-member team from the ADB led by Mr. Ludwig G. Rieder, Team Leader, GMS sustainable Tourism RETA along with Ms. Gurmeet S. Rai, Conservation Architect Director Cultural Recourses and Mr. Aurobindo Ogra, Assistant Manager Tourism, Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. today met the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal and asked for detailed project reports in this regard to be submitted within the next ten days.
In the meeting Punjab Toursim Minister Mr. Hira Singh Gabria, Media Advisor to Chief Minister Mr. H S Bains, Chief Secretary Mr. R.I.Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. D.S Guru, Principal Secretary Tourism Geetika Kalha, Principal Secretary Power Mr. Suresh Kumar, Secretary PWD Mr. Karan Avtar Singh, Secretary Housing and Urban Development Mr. Arun Goyal, Secretary Local Govt. Mr. M.P. Singh and Principal Chief Conservative Forest and Wild Life Mr. B.C. Bala were also present.
In addition to these projects the ADB also agreed to finance major Religious and Water Tourism including Roads connecting the Raja Sansi Airport to the Grand Trunk Road ( G.T. Road), Ajnala – Dera Baba Nanak – Gurdaspur, Banga-Garshankar-Anandpur Sahib, Sultanpur Lodhi-Goindwal Sahib-Khadur Sahib and Beas. The ADB would also help in promoting infrastructure on the Pilgrim Circuit comprising Sri Hargobindpur-Qadian-Guman, Sultanpur Lodhi-Khadur
Sahib-Goindwal, Dera Baba Nanak-Batala and Anandpur Sahib-Chamkaur Sahib-Kiratpur Sahib- Fatehgarh Sahib.
The ADB would also help the Punjab Government to fill existing gaps in the elevated road project in Amritsar. In addition to this the entire city would be given a face lift for visitor's movement, management and facilitation by developing projects related to decongestion of the walled city.
Apart from this ADB would also help to promote Natural Heritage Tourism for which seven Eco Tourism sites were identified with the focus on wetlands and rivers including the two Ramsar sites of Harike and Ropar wet lands.