Siliguri was included as part of one of the seven high speed rail corridors between cities in the Union budget tabled by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday.
However, this apart, tourism stakeholders from north Bengal were left largely disappointed. The region was ignored in other schemes like the Buddhism circuit and mountain trails.
“In order to promote environmentally sustainable passenger systems, we will develop seven high-speed rail corridors between cities as ‘growth connector’,” said Sitharaman while presenting the budget in Parliament.
The seven corridors named in the speech are Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bengaluru, Hyderabad-Chenai, Chennai-Bengaluru, Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Siliguri.
"The announcement of a high-speed rail corridor connecting Siliguri to Varanasi, which will be further connected to Delhi is a welcome move. This corridor will dramatically improve passenger mobility, tourism and business travel across north Bengal, eastern Indian, Northeast states, and integrate the region more closely with national growth centres,” stated Raju Bista, the Darjeeling BJP MP.
Tourism stakeholders, however, complained that apart from the rail corridor, there was nothing for the region.
“The only bright spot in the budget is the inclusion of Siliguri in the rail corridor. Otherwise, there's nothing for Bengal from the tourism perspective,” said Samrat Sanyal, the general secretary of the Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network.
The budget gave a boost to tourism in the Buddhist circuit, but while Sikkim was included, Darjeeling, which has a strong Buddhist base, was excluded.
“The north-eastern region is a civilisation confluence of Theravada and Mahayana/Vajrayana traditions. I propose to launch a scheme for development of Buddhist circuits in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. The scheme will cover preservation of temples and monasteries, pilgrimage interpretation centres, connectivity and pilgrim amenities,” Sitharaman said.
Other tourism related announcements made by the finance minister include developing 15 archeological sites across India, mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and in Araku Valley in Eastern Ghats and Podhigai Malai in Western Ghats.
Turtle trails along key nesting sites in the coastal areas of Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala and bird watching trails along the Pulikat lake in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu would also be developed, stated the minister in her speech.
Raj Basu, convener, Association for Conservation & Tourism (ACT), said they were disappointed that there was not much focus on rural tourism "which is a major source of livelihood for many in the region".
Darjeeling MP Bista, however, highlighted lateral benefits.
“The government’s proposal to set up a national institute of hospitality will give a huge boost to tourism dominated regions like Darjeeling. Additionally, the proposal to upskill 10,000 guides in iconic tourist sites will greatly benefit our youths,” Bista said.
Additional reporting by Bireswar Banerjee in Siliguri