Tourists to get passes in Bengal

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government for the first time has come up with special passes for tourists to enable them to visit all Durga Puja pandals in and around the city.

The state tourism department has issued the ‘Sharodotsav 2017 special guest passes’ for the Pujas and the Red Road carnival on October 3, a tourism department official said on Saturday.

Each pass, depicting the face of goddess Durga, will enable one person to visit all Durga Pujas being held in Kolkata and its neighbouring Salt Lake City and Howrah district besides the October-3 carnival. It will be valid from September 23 to October 3.

“We want to publicise the Durga Puja which is the biggest festival in the world. We want to show to the world what Durga Puja is all about. And it is probably also the biggest food festival in the world. So for the first time we have planned to showcase it,” the official said.

The Consulates in the city have also been provided with these passes, he said.

Last year the tourism department had tried to woo foreign tourists for the Durga Puja carnival on the Red Road with poor response.

“All the hotels in the city have been asked to provide the passes to their guests. Foreign guests have shown immense interest in it and we are getting calls from hotel authorities for more passes,” he said.

Budget and small hotels in south Kolkata’s Sudder Street have also been interested in the passes, he said.

The state tourism department has also set up a counter at the airport to draw attention of the visitors.

“Team members and officials will start arriving on the city from this weekend and early next week. We are planning to tap them at the airport. We’ll distribute passes to the FIFA officials. That will earn us a huge mileage,” the official said.