Now, copter from Kolkata to Digha

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee plays the drum to inaugurate the Biswa Bangla Lokasanskriti Utsav in Kolkata on Wednesday. — Abhijit Mukherjee

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday flagged off a helicopter service between Kolkata and Digha to showcase the sea resort as an attractive tourist destination. A few hours later, she promoted folk art by organising Biswa Bangla Lok Sanskriti Utsav in Kolkata. The 10-day festival is being held at Laldighi near Writers’ Buildings.

Ms Banerjee returned to the city on the inaugural chopper service. A chopper ride will take a tourist from Kolkata to Digha in 40 minutes and will cost '2,000. The service will initially be available only on Saturdays. She also inaugurated a ropeway at Amarbati Park in Digha.

As soon as she had come to power in 2011, Ms Banerjee had expressed her resolve to turn Darjeeling into Switzerland and Digha into Goa. No one can deny that in the past four years she has taken a number of measures to improve infrastructures at both places. “Digha would soon emerge as one of the most fascinating tourist destinations in the country. There has been a marked transformation in Digha in the past few years. Now more tourists will visit Digha which will boost the local economy and will be good for the people here,” she announced at Digha helipad ground.

If the chief minister claimed that Digha has changed then she had good reason to say so. In the past three days that she spent at the sea resort, she met a large number of tourists who told her: “Didi Digha has indeed changed.” This must have come as music to her ears because she had taken initiatives to not only launch several projects for Digha’s upgradation and beautification, but personally monitored their progress. The sea-beach looks much cleaner; street illumination has also improved and so has the security of the tourists. However, the most remarkable addition has been the construction of the 4 km walkway. Another major plan is to connect another resort Mandarmoni with Digha through Tajpur. Meanwhile, in Kolkata a special floating stage has been set up at Lal Dighi for the folk arts festival which is also being held at another venue: Princep Ghat.

The chief minister said that many old folk arts were gradually fading away because of neglect.

“Our government is determined to preserve and promote all folk art forms. We have registered 50000 folk artists under Lok Prasar Prakalpa. I am proud we are using folk artists for govt advertisements. We are giving financial stipends to folk artists every month and they are performing at our functions. The folk culture and heritage of Bengal was slowly dying but we have taken initiatives to revive them,” Ms Banerjee announced.

She also announced her plans to turn Lal Dighi into a cultural zone where artists would perform on Saturdays and Sundays. “Vehicles may not be allowed on this stretch between 5 pm on Saturday till 10 pm on Sundays so that families can visit the place and enjoy some cultural event,” she added.