Sahara to invest Rs 914cr in Sunderbans
By Our Correspondent | 27 Sep 2001
Kolkata: Floatels on rivers. Treetop watchtowers over vast stretches of mangroves where tigers lurk behind thick bushes. A beach resort on the Bay of Bengal. These are some of the upcoming attractions at the Sunderbans that would be developed to make the place one of the world's top tourist destinations.
The Sahara India group has decided to invest Rs 914 crore in a massive tourism project in the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove reserve and abode to the Royal Bengal tigers.
According to group managing director Subrata Roy, the project envisages setting up of floatels along streams of rivers that wind through the Sunderbans and developing about 1.5 km of sea beach in the delta region.
The Sahara India group has floated Sahara India Commercial Corporation to take up the project in which the West Bengal government would be an equity participant.
The state government will provide land and other capital help for the project. The Sahara group made a presentation about the project to Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and other senior state government officials earlier this week.
Bhattacharjee is very excited about the project; he has assured us all help, Roy said, adding that it is expected to be completed by 2005.