Jamshedpur, April 10: Men sporting smart uniforms would soon greet tourists at popular destinations across the state.

Aimed at imparting a sense of identity to the teams being created to man the spots, the tourism department has initiated talks with International Institute of Fashion Technology (IIFT) to stitch smart attires for individual team members doubling as responsible people at picturesque locations.

So be it the guard, security personnel or the gardener and kiosk owners around the tourist hubs, everyone would be seen sporting a comfortable designer wear soon.

“It is aimed at providing the team members with a sense of belonging alongside giving tourists the opportunity to recognise them as representatives of the tourism department,” said Arun Kumar Singh, the tourism secretary.

Not only the villagers who would constitute the groups, the tourism department officials monitoring their activities would also be seen sporting uniforms in a bid to promote oneness. “We are looking at comfortable, durable and bright colour fabrics for the uniforms,” added Singh.

Instructions on the same line have been given to the city fashion designing house. “Talks on the colour scheme and design would be finalised on April 14 when we meet for the final round of discussions with top tourism department officials,” said S.K. Mohanty, the proprietor of IIFT.

To begin with, 30 places across the state have been identified, where people would be manned in the first phase of the ambitious project.

The teams would be built — involving local people of surrounding villages — with the objective of providing them either direct or indirect employment opportunities. The department has also undertaken infrastructure development at each of these places to ensure that people of the adjoining villages can be roped in to get a fair share of the pie.

On many an earlier occasion, a number of proposals of the tourism department had to be scrapped following opposition from local people around the chosen locales.

While the appointment of team members would be through NGOs, who would be responsible for providing them the basic training, expert training in their chosen disciplines would be given by tourism department officials.