Eco tourism plan for Ayodhya Hills

PURULIA: The state government is planning to set up an eco tourism centre at the Purulia Pump Storage Project (PPSP) in the Ayodhya Hills. The government will soon submit a detailed project report to the Centre on the project, said Manish Gupta, the minister in charge of power, development and planning.
The minister announced this a few days ago, during the inauguration of the 250 MW thermal power project at Santaldih.
Prospects of tourism in the Ayodhya Hills have been seriously affected during the past few years owing to a strong presence of the Maoists in the region.
During her first visit to Jangalmahal as chief minister a few months ago, Mamata Banerjee, too, had said that her government might plan an eco tourism centre in the Ayodhya Hills. In order to attract tourists the state government has plans to develop roads in the area and set up hotels, restaurants, tourism offices, adventure sports centres, tourist cottages, boating facilities and the like, said official sources.
The power minister said that work for the Greenfield 800 MW super critical unit of Santaldih Thermal Power Corporation will begin within a year. The present capacity of Santaldih is 500 MW.
On August 7, 2008, the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had inaugurated the 900 MW pump storage project, the country’s largest and the world’s fourth largest pump storage project at a cost of Rs 2953 crore with a loan from Japan Bank of International Cooperation.
Bhattacharjee had then said that the power and the tourism department would work jointly to set up an eco tourism centre at Purulia Pump Storage Project. His government, however, had failed to implement the plan.