Jamshedpur, Feb. 22: Good news for food lovers in the city. The Jamshedpur Hoteliers Association, district administration and Tata Steel will jointly organise a food festival from March 2 to 10, which will coincide with JN Tata’s birth anniversary celebrations.

The decision was taken at a meeting, presided over by East Singhbhum deputy commissioner Nidhi Khare, here today. Officials of Tata Steel, tourism and forest departments and representatives of Jamshedpur Hoteliers Association were present.

Sources said during the festival, christened Founder’s Day Food Festival, all major hotels in the city would be lit up to create a festive mood.

“We will invite people from other states to the week-long festival. We aim to make the city a popular tourist destination by organising such festivals,” Ronnie D’ Costa, president of Jamshedpur Hoteliers Association told The Telegraph.

According to him, the association is also planning to conduct package tours to Dimna, Dalma and Chandil dam to make people aware of the tourism potential of the city and its adjoining areas. He said the tourism department will distribute brochures on the tourist spots in East Singhbhum to visitors at the festival.

The tourism department had earlier helped the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner in hard-selling the eco-tourism concept in Jamshedpur, Dalma, Dimna and Ghatshila. They had also come up with attractive packages for tourists visiting these places.

Tourism department director Sanoj Jha said the department has already inserted advertisements in all local dailies to attract tourists to these places.

Vice-president of Jamshedpur Hoteliers Association Smita Parikh, who was present at the meeting, said: “The idea behind holding such festivals is to place the city and its adjoining areas on the tourist map. East Singhbhum is a beautiful place which offers plenty of scope for adventure sports. The district can be developed into a coveted tourist spot.”

“Today’s meeting was a step towards this direction. The food festival is just the beginning. We will organise many such festivals on different themes like culture and music. All this will help promote tourism in this district,” she said.