Bhubaneswar: The state government, which has formulated a new policy to woo investment in the tourism sector, has set up a special single window clearance committee to expedite clearance of investment proposals.

"The government has approved proposals for 34 new hotels since 2015," said tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda. Of these 34 projects, the special single window clearance committee has cleared 25. Besides, the state-level single window clearance authority had approved nine more hotel projects, he said.

Though Odisha has a huge potential to attract tourists and footfall has increased over the years, only one lakh foreigners have visited the state. This is only 0.98 per cent of the all-India figure of 1.01 crore.

To increase tourist footfall, the government has come up with a new policy to woo investors to set up tourism-related projects such as heritage hotels, resorts, heath farms, health and wellness spas and adventure sports.

"Hospitality sector plays a major role to attract foreign tourists. That's why we have been urging the state government to encourage more and more hotels in the state by providing fiscal incentives and land," said chairman of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha J.K. Mohanty, who is also a member of the State Tourism Advisory Council.

Panda said the government's new tourism policy had provisions to provide financial incentives and land to the proposed projects.

"We have identified potential places such as Daringbadi, Rayagada, Jeypore, Damanjopdi, Satkosia and Dhamra for developing a tourism land bank of 1,000 acres," Mohanty said.

The Odisha Tourism Policy, 2016, has offered capital investment subsidy of 20 per cent for investment up to Rs 50 crore and maximum Rs 15 crore for those above Rs 50 crore. Besides, incentives in form of additional and interest subsidy, stamp duty exemption, reimbursement of land conversion charge, VAT, entry and entertainment taxes and exemption of power duty have been offered.