National Culinary Institute will come up near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad with an outlay of Rs 50 crore, to be funded by the Centre.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has agreed to allot a 20-acre site for the institute. It will have branches in Kolkata and Noida.

Tourism projects

The Chief Minister has asked the tourism department to speed up work on the International Convention Centre at Tirupati and three other centres planned in the State at Visakhapatnam, Warangal and Karimnagar. President Pranab Mukherjee had laid the foundation stone for the Tirupati centre during the Fourth World Telugu Conference.

Chairing the State Tourism Promotion Board, the Chief Minister said tourism needs to be aggressively marketed and promoted both locally and internationally through promotional activities.

The State received 15.30 crore domestic (including Tirupati) and 2.60 lakh foreign tourists last year and the tourism sector generated $23 million (about Rs 120 crore) of foreign exchange earnings.

Fifteen tourism projects with an outlay of Rs 63 crore are ready for inauguration and 12 others are nearing completion. The Centre sanctioned Rs 58.83 crore for seven projects during 2012-13.

The Government has taken up a special drive to complete various projects now under way including Haritha Flemingo Resort at Tada.

The Shilparamam society was asked to speed up the work for crafts centres at Nellore, Warangal and Vijayawada taken up with an investment of Rs 20 crore.

>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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