Amaravati: Boating operations set to resume across state

Amaravati: The state government will soon resume the boat operations and the officials were directed to restore all 195 boats with fresh licences after conducting a full-fledged fitness check.

Addressing a press conference here, tourism minister Muttamsetti Srinivas Rao said that all the boats under the tourism department will start their operations soon based on the flood levels in rivers.

Boating operations have started in Visakhapatnam and East Godavari regions and once flood levels recede, boating in Bhavani Island, Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam shall resume. Of the total 195 boats, 56 small 12-seater boats were given licences and 112 boats with higher capacity are yet to get the license.

The minister said that new boats would be purchased either by the department or through public-private partnership and would be run in potential routes to boost the revenue. In addition to these, as a measure to avoid boat accidents, nine Command Control Rooms have been set-up, he added.

The minister further reviewed the possibilities for increasing revenue generation in the tourism sector, especially in the coming four months. He proposed introducing seaplane tourism connecting Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada-Hussain Sagar, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated one such project in Gujarat.

There are 38 restaurants run by the department and during Covid lockdown, all these restaurants supplied food to Covid care centres and earned a revenue of Rs 22.5 crore. A new ship restaurant in Visakhapatnam and setting up 5 and 7 star hotels were at proposal stage.

In regard to the sports, Srinivasa Rao said a new stadium in Prakasam district and a shopping complex which were built at a cost of Rs 2.2 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively, would be inaugurated on November 5. Also, the construction of six more stadiums in East Godavari, Guntur and Prakasam districts were underway.

He said that the state would receive Rs 3 crore funds through Centre's initiative Khelo India, for YSR Sports school in Kadapa. The minister said that the state accorded permission to run individual sports institutes of 10 sports like archery, badminton, tennis under unlock 5.0 from Thursday.

A statue of famous wrestler Kodi Rammurthy Naidu who brought many laurels to the state would be installed on the beach road in Visakhapatnam. He said that Chief Minister was giving importance to the sports and encouraging budding players from rural areas.