If you are planning to book rooms at government lodges on your next trip, you’ll have to make alternative plans. Most of the 42 state tourist lodges will be shut from July to September as the government plans to renovate them.
Rs 100 crore has been allocated for the project under which the tourism department plans to upgrade its lodges to three-star properties in a bid to cater to tourists better. Once the lodges are ready, they will be on a par with the best hotels in the state. “Even the staffers are being trained to handle foreign tourists in a better way so that there is no resentment among guests,” the official said.
Bookings had already been closed for some of the lodges, a state official said. The government plans to renovate 10 lodges by July, the work for which has already started. For the rest, work will start by mid-July.
An official said they planned to complete the renovation by September, before the Durga Puja rush kicked in. The official added that now, bookings for lodges in north Bengal were open for early July. But from this week, it would be stopped for some of them, he said.
Source: Times of India
