The Hindu Business Line : Govt to float co for circular train in South

A CIRCULAR train covering whole of the South is taking shape, at last. A separate company will be floated soon to take care of the Rs 35-crore project.

Announcing this here at a press conference, Ms Rathi Vinay Jha, Union Tourism Secretary, said the Government would sanction 25 per cent of the project cost as grant, while the Railways would contribute 35-40 per cent.

She was here to participate in the fourth meeting of South India Tourism Council.

If all goes well, the circular train will be a thing of reality in two years. The southern States have been planning for quite some time to float a circular train, connecting all the important tourism sites in the region. The Southern Tourism Ministers, who met here late last year, mooted the idea to give a boost the tourism industry in the region.

The Tourism Secretary said the Government had initiated several capacity building programmes to improve the skills of all the stakeholders such as `daba' owners, cab operators and travel agents.

She said the tourism industry was looking up, shrugging off the 9/11 fallout.

An interesting phenomenon was that there was an increase in the number of high-spending tourists coming into the country.

The next meeting of the council will be held in Karnataka.