Amritsar : Amritsar Vikas Manch has expressed worry about the biased and indifferent attitude of the Punjab Government towards the development of tourism in Amritsar. The Manch president Manmohan Singh Brar and Patron Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala said that Amritsar, which is the centre of tourism , is being ignored by the State Government which is more interested in Mohali. The present figures given by the state government about the 27% increase in domestic tourists and 30% increase in international tourists is only due to Amritsar, which is contributing more than 90% of all the tourists coming to Punjab. Amritsar is receiving one to two lakh tourists daily which no other city can boast off. Amritsar airport which has crossed 25 lakh visitors in 2018-19 and will touch 30 lakh passengers in 2019 -20 is having direct air connectively to London, Doha, Birmingham, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Sharjah, and Tashkent and with 9 domestic destinations due to the air connectivity to 7 countries, Therefore, Amritsar should be developed as medical hub and Punjab Government should develop a Medicity in Amritsar to bring more world class hospitals. The Software Technology park of India (STPI) incubation centre will be functional in Amritsar in next 6 months and Punjab Government should develop an I.T.Park to attract more I.T. companies. But on the other hand, Punjab Government is developing I.T. Parks and medicity in Mohali and is least bothered to develop these facilities in Amritsar .
Amritsar is hosting the 14th PITEX trade fair which is creating business of more than 200 crore rupees every year. But the Punjab Government is not serious about developing permanent Exhibition Centre in Amritsar for such trade fairs the project for which is pending for the last 10 years. An international convention centre is also urgently required to be set up in Amritsar for the development of tourism in the city. A world class tourism park consisting of aquarium, Theme Park, Water Sports etc. should also be developed in Amritsar to keep the tourists engaged for more days.
