Vadodara, Apr 25 (PTI) Union Tourism Minister Subodhkant Sahay today promised help from the Centre in the implementation of Rs 400 crore plan for beautification of Gandhi Ashram on the bank of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad. "I will do my best to see that project gets the help that is needed from the Centre," Sahay told PTI here. Gujarat Tourism Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said the state government was keen to implement the project, and it had sent a detailed project report (DPR) to the Centre about three and half years ago, and sought financial assistance. Talking about the tourism industry, the Union Minister said the country needed two lakh additional hotel rooms to attract more foreign tourists. "Involvement of private sector is necessary to achieve the target of increasing foreign arrivals to 11 million a year by 2016, from the present six million," he said. The Union Government's decision to bring tourism under infrastructure category will encourage the private sector to increase the hotel capacity, he added. Earlier, Sahay laid the foundation stone of tourism circuit development project in the tribal Narmada district. The union government has taken up a project to develop hill-station of Malsamot, Ninay waterfall and Dev Mogra temple. The inauguration comes in the year in which Assembly polls are due. No BJP minister from Gujarat participated. "Gujarat government has not taken care of these spots. However, local Congress MLA Shri Amarsinh Vasava brought this to the notice of our leader Ahmed Patel who took it up with the tourism minister and ultimately the district got Rs 10 crore for these projects," leader of opposition in assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil said. The UPA government had sanctioned Rs 86.14 crore for tourism projects in the state, the Congress leader claimed. PTI Corr PD KRK
