State tourism minister asks officials to speed up tourism projects in Ooty

State tourism minister K Ramachandran inspected projects that are being developed as part of promoting adventure tourism in Ooty.

The projects, including zip line, zip cycle, canopy tour, bungee jumping, suspension bridge, roller coaster zipline, rocket ejector, are being developed in the boat house area at a cost of 5 crore under the public private partnership (PPP) model. Additionally, a cafeteria is also being developed at a cost of 3.2 crore in the area.

State tourism minister said the suspension bridge, which will be 450m long and 120m high, would attract many tourists once completed. “Work for a rope car unit connecting the Doddabetta peak and the Valley View will also be initiated soon. We are also planning to develop a ‘boat cafeteria’ at the Pykara boat house located 12km away from Ooty.”

District tourist officer Umashankar and other senior officials accompanied the minister during the inspection. The minister instructed the concerned officials to speed up the work. He also instructed boat house employees to keep the footpaths clean.

The minister said a total of 23 lakh tourists have visited the district from April 2022 until now, while 12 lakh tourists visited the hill town in the financial year 2021-2022.