Karwar: In the coming years, Karwar would become the most sought after coastal tourism destination in Karnataka, said District incharge Minister R V Deshpande.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of inauguration of Karavali Utsav on Ravindranath Tagore beach here, Deshpande said infrastructure development in the coastal region, especially in Karwar has been mooted and funds are made available under various schemes of state and Central government.
“For many years several tourism spots in Uttara Kannada district were not developed. When you look at Goa state which attracts large numbers of tourists, had its infrastructure on the coast ready even before the CRZ rules were in place. The state government in Karnataka and Tourism Ministry in particular are releasing funds annually to improve the tourism infrastructure in coastal areas,” Deshpande said.
“Due to strict coastal regulation zone (CRZ) rules, we are unable to take more development works on beaches. We have been asking Union Environment Minister to relax the CRZ norms. Soon Karwar will entertain the sea divers from across the country as the administration is all set to begin the scuba diving,” he said.
The tourism experts point out that Uttara Kannada district has a lot of tourism potential with beautiful beaches waterfalls, dense forests, and many more. Ironically tourism in the district is not developed up to the mark, tourists who come here from different parts of country spend less time on the beaches of Uttara Kannada and head to Goa for staying.
Tourism experts and local people here are not happy with the state government’s tourism policy which is not supportive to the development of tourist’s places in the state. The state government’s investment and plans are not supportive to tourism and the government has failed to promote tourism of the district, they say. When it comes to the beaches, barring a few shores in Honnavar, Gokarna and Murudeshwara, other beaches in the district have not developed.
The Uttara Kannada district has some of the virgin beaches on the west coast which are harder to find. In Karwar, except Ravindranath Tagore beach other beaches including Tilamati and Devbhag beaches are neglected. Tilamati beach is one of the unique beach which has black sand on its shores. But people are not aware about this due to the absence of proper publicity.
Madhav Naik, a social worker, said politicians are not showing keen interest to develop our district as tourism hub. For the development of tourism here all politicians, people should support, they should think about the development of our district, he added.
Deputy Commissioner SS Nakul said, in the recent past funds have been released for the development of beaches as tourism hubs. “Tourism department have been chalking out plans to attract more number of tourist here. In additional to this, district administration along with other government departments is organizing events like Karavali Utsav,” he said.