Destination Master Plan on the anvil to develop Puducherry into a sustainable tourism destination

Puducherry UT govt. is dev. Destination Master Plan to transform it into sustainable, responsible tourism destination, preserving culture/heritage. Central govt. has included Puducherry/Karaikal in Swadesh Darshan scheme 2.0. L&T/PwC chosen as project dev. & mgmt. consultant. Plan to focus on air connectivity, hop-on-hop off services, cruise terminal, last mile connectivity & e-vehicles. Multi-product tourism zones in Manapet under PPP model & PRASHAD scheme for dev. of tourist/pilgrim sites. CRZ mapping by NCSCM to find out acceptability of projects.

The Puducherry government is working on the preparation of a Destination Master Plan that aims to transform Puducherry into a sustainable and responsible tourism destination in the country, while preserving the Union Territory’s culture, heritage and natural assets.

The Central government, under the Swadesh Darshan scheme 2.0 has included Puducherry and Karaikal regions in the destination-based tourism development scheme. The Union Ministry of Tourism has selected L&T along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as the project development and management consultant to prepare the Master Plan for Puducherry and Karaikal.

The consultant will help the territorial administration develop a plan of action for destination tourism and a detailed project report (DPR) for identified components under the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme.

According to D. Manikandan, Tourism Secretary, “The Master Plan will have a perspective of 10 years with policy framework for various tourism verticals, aiming to develop the U.T. as one of the preferred tourist destinations in the country. The proposed master plan will include a destination assessment, a review of statutory and tourism plans, visioning and target outputs, proposed strategies and action plans (both hard and soft interventions), project operations and a maintenance plan.”

Mr. Manikandan added, “Based on the Master Plan, the Union Ministry of Tourism will choose a maximum four iterations and the project development and management consultant (PDMC) will prepare the DPR and bid process management for the identified iterations. The PDMC has already visited 50 sites in Puducherry and 20 sites in Karaikal and submitted the inception report.”

The master plan will also focus on improving air connectivity from Puducherry to other destinations, hop-on-hop off services with private participation, the development of a tourist cruise terminal, improving last mile connectivity and promoting e-vehicle services.

The administration has also planned the development of multi-product tourism zones in Manapet in Puducherry under a public private partnership (PPP) model. The Tourism Department has appointed a transaction advisor for the project.