KOCHI: While the floods in August marred tourism development in Ernakulam, the coming year will see the completion of several new tourist places. Pride of place goes to the Ernakulam Children’s Park, scheduled to open before the summer vacation after a facelift.
The data by the Tourism Department reveals as many as eight tourism-related projects are in the implementation stage here. “The development and renovation of a number of tourist places will be completed in 2019,” said S Vijay Kumar, Ernakulam DTPC secretary.
“The prime project is the ongoing renovation of the Children’s Park with world-class facilities being carried at `4 crore. The renovation work is on schedule. Work on Kallidumbil Aattutheeram park in Piravom Municipality is complete and will open next year. Similarly, the construction of a suspension bridge at Manakkakadavu in Kunathunad is also nearing completion and will open in early 2019.”
Kallidumbil Attutheeram park was constructed for `1.5 crore. The construction of the suspension bridge at Manakkakadavu in Kunnathunad was done for `4 crore.Nine tourism destinations will be developed as barrier-free to accommodate the differently-abled. “The first phase development of barrier-free tourism destinations is nearing completion. Before April, we will complete the second phase development work,” said Vijay Kumar.
In the first phase of the barrier-free project, Fort Kochi, Ernakulam Boat Jetty, and Cherai and Munambam beaches were selected and the construction was carried out using `44 lakh allocated by the state government.
