Patna: The state tourism department wants to attract investments in the sector with an aim to create employment opportunities for local residents.

One of the department's plans involves setting up hotels in at Gaya, Rajgir in Nalanda, and Kesaria in East Champaran - all of which attract a large number of tourists every year - under the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

"We have received proposals from a few companies that want to set up hotels at Gaya, Rajgir, and Kesaria, and officials are studying the proposals after which the final decision will be taken," said state tourism minister Pramod Kumar.

The government will provide land for the hotels and would have a say in the management of these facilities.

The minister said that such proposals were good for employment generation as local residents could find jobs in such facilities.

"Moreover, such facilities lead to stay of tourists at a given place which create employment opportunities for the locals in providing various kinds of services to the tourists," the minister added.

Sources in the tourism department said a similar proposal was being discussed for setting up a bigger hotel on the land where the state tourism development corporation-run Hotel Kautilya Vihar is located in Patna.

"As a huge chunk of government land is available behind the existing hotel, the department is planning to invite private players to set up a bigger hotel there in PPP mode," the source said, adding that the idea was in a nascent state.

Minister Pramod said his department also intended to set up a cultural village in Rajgir in Nalanda district to generate employment opportunities for local residents. The department has already acquired 60-acre land for the project and the boundary wall is coming up around the plot.

"Once the cultural village becomes functional, a large number of locals would get direct and indirect employment," the minister said.

The tourism department is also planning to rope in the services of private players, such as hotels, tour and travel agencies, to cater to the needs of tourists in Bihar. The main aim is to provide better facilities to tourists and also give them the option of booking all services in advance at a predefined rate.

"Our move would create a lot of employment opportunities in the services sector because tourists would not hesitate in availing services that would be linked through the tourism corporation and rates would be well-defined in advance," the minister said.

The owner of a Patna-based travel agency, who requested anonymity, said: "Linking of our services with the government would provide us a very big platform. But government should also ensure that our payments are made in time and we don't need to make rounds of the offices to get our dues."