Bhubaneswar: May 31: Government of Odisha will conduct a senior citizen pilgrimage tour programme, which will begin from Berhampur in July this year. “Thousand senior citizens would tour several tourist destinations in South India in the first phase,” said Tourism and Culture minister Ashok Panda. As planned, Besides Berhampur, two more tour will be from Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar. The tour from Bhubaneswar will cover Banaras & Allahabad whereas from Sambalpur it will be Haridwar and Rishikesh.
This 3-month tour programme will be organised every year from July. It is said, about 3000 senior citizens would avail the pilgrimage opportunity this year, their number will go up to 6000 in 2017 and 9,000 in 2018. Senior Citizens from BPL category will not have to pay anything whereas people from APL category will have to pay 50 percent of the travel cost.
The review meeting of the department chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik discussed the subsidies to be given by the state government to the Silk Air Private Ltd and Tiger Airways Singapore Pvt Ltd in Singapore who have proposed direct air connectivity to South Asian countries. Besides other things discussed in the meeting were, relaxation of rules for the tourists to visit Scheduled Tribe (ST) areas, formation of land bank for new hotels and tourism projects, more focus on Buddhist circuits, creation of employment opportunity for the youths in the Tourism sector and provision for adequate security to the tourists.
