PUDUCHERRY: Many couples entertain the idea of having a destination wedding at a fascinating venue. For those who don’t know yet, destination weddings involve hosting the ceremony with hundreds of people, kilometres away from the bride’s residence. However, a pocket-friendly venue is what most couples search for and that could lead you to Puducherry as the tourism department is all set to create a special tourism zone at the Old Port premises at the end beach road.
The Special Tourism zone (STZ) is being readied for promoting Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism and destination weddings, Puducherry PWD and Tourism Minister K Lakshminarayanan told TNIE. This could be an ideal location for a destination wedding as it overlooks the sea, the minister said.
Already three heritage buildings have been constructed, by converting the godowns of the Old Port, for promoting tourism by utilising Rs 3 crore out of the funds provided by the Ministry of Tourism. There would be AC, non AC rooms, large halls, kitchen and toilets and work is almost complete.
Laksminarayanan and Chief Minister N Rangasamy visited the place on Wednesday and said it will likely be inaugurated in January.
Another three godowns would also be converted into buildings. The proposal is to construct a convention centre and multi-storied buildings. All this is being done with the Rs 6 crore provided by the Ministry of Tourism, he said. The large open space of about three to four acres in between would be landscaped for multipurpose use and the old pier would also get a facelift, the minister said. With scarcity of finance and dwindling central assistance, UT government is having to look elsewhere for additional funds. During the recent stakeholders meeting, Rangasamy said with hardly any additional revenue coming in, tourism is the only way forward.