West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today announced that the Rs 2,300-crore modernisation project of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata will be completed by March next year.
"The new airport will be read by March and we shall also start a flying club at Behala where an air-strip lies unused," Banerjee said at a FICCI programme here.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had taken up a modernization project for the Kolkata airport in 2008 which includes building a fourth terminal and revamping the existing ones.
Kolkata is the main pillar on which the progress of eastern and northeastern states depend, she said.
"If Kolkata is developed, then automatically all the eastern and north-eastern states will also develop," she said, adding that northeast was geographically very big but was isolated from the rest of the country.
Underlining the tourism potential of West Bengal, Banerjee said not only will Kolkata be developed on the lines of London, but the beaches of Digha can be made like Goa, Darjeeling can resemble Switzerland and the Sunderbans can become the like of famed African safari.
"The forests of Sunderbans, Jalpaiguri and Dooars can be developed on the lines of the African safari to attract tourists," she said, adding that as peace has now returned to the Darjeeling, "it can be our Switzerland".
Banerjee said it was FICCI's then secretary general Amit Mitra, now the state's Finance Minister, who had proposed the idea of developing the city of Kolkata on the lines of London.
"When I met him, he told me that since Kolkata is also located on the banks of a river why can't we develop the city like London," Banerjee said at a session of FICCI-FRAMES on media and entertainment business.
On the promotion and marketing of films, she suggested that the rich and diverse culture of West Bengal and other eastern states can be used an effective marketing tool.
"We are having a fund crunch, but our heart lies in films," the chief minister said.
Source: http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=744378