Festival at Hirakud to promote tourism

SAMBALPUR: In a bid to promote tourism in Western Odisha, a festival along the lines of ‘Jal Mahotsav’ at Hanuwantiya in Madhya Pradesh will be organised at Hirakud dam reservoir here during the peak tourist season, which starts from October.

Speaking at a State level workshop on ‘Development of Tourism in Western Odisha’ organised by Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) here on Wednesday, Director of Tourism, N B Jawale, said Revenue Divisional Commissioner (northern division), DV Swamy, had given a proposal to start the mahotsav at Hirakud dam reservoir along the lines of ‘Jal Mahotsav’ of Madhya Pradesh.

Jawale said the festival will be organised jointly by the Tourism department and district administration every year to attract tourists. The mahotsav will be a water-centric festival where the tourists will be able to enjoy stay in tents, water sports and water adventure activities at Hirakud reservoir, he said.

Even though the exact duration of the mahotsav is yet to be finalised, the festival is likely to be held for two to three days. The proposed mahotsav at Hirakud reservoir will be better than the ‘Jal Mahotsav’ of Madhya Pradesh, Jawale said.

Apart from the mahotsav, the Tourism department is also going to start water sports activities at the reservoir shortly. The tourism director said discussions were held with officials of the Water Resources department in this regard. “The Tourism department is going to provide jet ski for water sports activities at the reservoir”, he said.

Jawale said apart from Golden Triangle of Odisha (Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri), there is huge potential for tourism in Western and Southern Odisha and the State Government is ready to provide all support for attracting tourists to the region.

“Moreover, the State Government has undertaken several development projects in Sambalpur that are aimed at making the city a major tourist hub of Western Odisha”, he said, adding the upcoming airport at Jharsuguda will play a key role in improving connectivity and this will boost tourism.

Among others, Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya, Sambalpur MLA  Raseswari Panigrahi, RDC (ND) DV Swamy, Sambalpur District Collector Samarth Verma and Chairman of HRAO, JK Mohanty, also spoke at the workshop.