Evening City Tour of APTDC grinds to a halt

The State government’s ambitious project of organising city tour in the evenings dies an early death as the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) could not make it an impressive one. Blame it on lack of interest among the officials.

The State government had directed the APTDC in July last year to start an evening tour in the city to provide better entertainment to the people and thus promote tourism in the region. The APTDC acquired an 18-seater AC coach to organise the tour every evening.

The tour priced at 400 per head, started 4 pm every evening from the Central Reservation Office (CRO) to Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Mangalagiri. After the darshan, visitors were taken to the famous Mangalagiri Cotton market and interiors where they could spend some time.

Later they are taken to Haailand to spend about an hour. They reach Berm Park by 8 pm where they were treated to a dinner on boat on river Krishna. The tour was initially a big hit among the youth and the elders as well. However, this project lived only for a short period with the officials not taking interest to promote the tour. Not much publicity was given.

The officials did not even put up boards at important places like railway station and bus station for the people to know about it and join the evening tour. The 18-seater AC coach, which was expected to give a pleasant ride to the people every evening, now remains in the parking lot of the Punnami Resorts at Bhavanipuram. The officials of the APTDC too remain silent on this prestigious project, giving it a premature death.