BHUBANESWAR: With the government looking to attract more national as well as international tourist footfall, stress has been given on grooming police personnel in behavioural and soft skills. The personnel of police stations which have heritage sites under their jurisdiction are being provided training.
Commissioner of Police Satyajit Mohanty inaugurated the training programme for police personnel and officers at Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, Bhubaneswar. The training is being sponsored by the Department of Tourism.
Police personnel, divided into two groups, will undergo seven days training each in two phases. “About 35 police personnel and officers will be part of each group. The first group’s training commenced on Monday and the second group’s session will begin after seven days,” said ACP Sisir Kumar Mishra.
Citing some of the police stations under whose limits the heritage sites come, Mishra said “Dhauli police station has tourist attractions like Dhauli Shanti Stupa under its jurisdiction, Lingaraj police station has ancient temples like Lingaraj and other heritage sites under its jurisdiction.
Similarly, Khandagiri police station has heritage sites likes Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves under its jurisdiction and Nandankanan police station has Nandankanan Zoological Park under its jurisdiction.”
Sources said like a police aid post in Puri, Commissionerate Police might request the State Government to either set up a similar facility or a tourist police station in the Capital to look into the grievances of visitors.
According to Department of Tourism, 1.52 crore domestic tourists and 1.11 lakh foreign tourists visited Odisha last year against 1.40 crore domestic and over a lakh foreign tourists in 2017; 1.28 crore domestic and 76,361 foreign tourists in 2016 and 1.17 crore domestic and 66,971 foreign tourists in 2015.
Between April 2018 and March 2019, 1.55 crore domestic and 1.13 lakh foreign tourists visited Odisha.
The officials said they expect the tourist footfall to increase in the State with the efforts of Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik seeing Bhubaneswar become Sports Hub of the country. The Chief Minister also urged the Centre to start international flight operations between Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here and Dubai which will further boost tourist inflow.
Joint Director, Department of Tourism, Utpal Kumar Pati, Nodal Officer of Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management Sarat Kumar Lenka and others were present.