The Hindu : Highway plazas to boost tourism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Highway plazas to boost tourism

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD June 22. Highway plazas with a host of world-class facilities will come up at 10 strategic points in the State in about a year. The IBP Co. Ltd, a part of the Indian Oil Company group, and the AP Tourism Development Corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding to pool their facilities and expertise for the purpose.

The Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, and the IOC Chairman and Managing Director, M. S. Ramachandran, were on hand when the MoU was signed by C. Anjaneya Reddy, Chairman-Managing Director, AP Tourism, and Arun Jyoti, Managing Director, IBP, here on Saturday.

The highway plaza IBP outlets will have restaurant/dhabha, cottage block, dormitory for truckers, convenience store, recreational facilities, play area for kids, first aid, fax, long-distance call, tourist information and green landscaping. Each plaza is to cost Rs. 50 to 75 lakhs.

Mr. Ramachandran said the IBP, which has 120 retail outlets in the State, would build 10 highway plazas of international class at a cost of Rs. 20 crores in one year. It was also proposing to open LPG dispensing stations in Hyderabad and five other towns.

Chandana Khan, Principal Secretary, Tourism, said survey was under way to identify sites to set up highway plazas on the national highway from Tada to Icchapuram. (Initially, Suryapet, Alampur cross-roads, Penukonda in Anantapur district and Sangareddy have been identified for setting up the plazas).

The Chief Minister said he wanted the 10 plazas to be ready by one year. He regretted that tourism was not getting due recognition, "as on today, we are attracting (foreign tourists and investment) practically nil while smaller countries like Singapore and Malaysia are succeeding.'' He believed that after information technology, it was tourism which had the greatest potential. The Government was promoting tourism in a big way.

Mr. Naidu, who held talks with Mr. Ramachandran earlier, said Hyderabad was being included among the cities for supply of low sulphur diesel, hopefully from October.

This would help curb vehicular pollution. LPG for vehicles was also being introduced in the next few months in Hyderabad and in a few major towns like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur, Warangal and Tirupati.

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