A mini Rajasthan fest will be conducted by the department of Rajasthan Tourism at Cochin on 8^th and 9^th of September 2010. This fest will be held at Pappali Hall at Ernakulam.  This fest is a part of Rajasthan Tourism promotion campaign titled “Rajasthan Calling”. The traditional dance and food of Rajasthan is the chief attractions of this fest. All female visitors will be treated with free Mehendi on their hands.  Mini Rajasthan fest will exhibit Rajasthan’s culture, art and handicraft. People can experience this fest from 11 am to 8 pm. There are around 25 stalls featuring various products. The chief attractions featured are wooden toys from Basichitoor, clay products from Ciya, small stone statues from Bansara, Ajmer gota works, Aratari Sardosi works from Niya village, Jute & Leather products from Jodhpur & Shinmalil, Tie and Dye from Akola, Brass Nakshi, Baladehi and Forest products from Barna.

Kerala Tourism Department is planning to launch a new scheme for promoting tourism opportunity. This new scheme is with the active participation of Keralites spread across the whole world. The scheme is simple and highly beneficial to the Non Resident Keralites working in various countries. As per the new promotion scheme they should find out people who wishes to visit the Gods own Country, Kerala. In the next step these Non Resident Keralites should provide their contact to the Kerala Tourism Department. The details will be then given to tour operators. If that suggested tourist visits Kerala the person who suggests will be credited with some points. This is an automated process. These points can be converted to Free air tickets, holiday packages, Ayurvedic retreat packages etc. The whole process is automated and will be via Online. This can be a very good opportunity for the nonresident Keralites to earn extra income. This scheme will be a great leap in Kerala Tourism’s history as Keralites are spread across the whole world.

Kerala Tourism department now invites all to submit their suggestions and ideas about this scheme. People can send their comments and opinions to the following E-mails: marketing@keralatourism.org, customersupport@mm.co.in.  The subject line should be “ente naad”.

Day 2: Day before the big day

Explorers: Martin Jacob and Crew

I was so tired of last day’s journey that I slept till 9.00 am in the morning. My sweet dream was ended by the noise of TV, mixer and what else. I was very angry, and then suddenly it came to my mind that this is not my room and I cannot shout to reduce the noise. I slowly and sleepy went to the living room to find what the heck was happening. My brother’s wife had prepared hot tea for me; the hotness was long by then.

Having the tea I sat beside my brother to get an idea about the trip and who all are coming. I knew all the trip mates except one. Oh let me introduce the trip mates

Kenney : My brother. Btech Engineer. CEO of Ayruz web holdings.

Anand: SEO Expert . Brothers partner.

Dinu : Bros wife. Air hostess

Hiran : Artist and freelance developer.

Since Kenney and Anand had some meetings in day time we had to postponed the starting to evening. Later we decided to start the trip at 10.00 pm in night. So after all the brain storming session bro went to his work and sister got into normal house hold activities. Rest of the day there was nothing for me to do so I just opened my laptop and started to see the movies in it one by one.

After 6.00 pm I closed the laptop because all the packing had to be done. While doing the packing I noticed that me and my bro had only two bags as luggage but the lady with us was packing up the whole house.

After the packing I went to the company guest house to see Anand. Sitting next to Anand was a tall, handsome, fat guy. That guy was Hiran. Seeing him, the first thing that came to mind was that how Hiran me and Kenney could fit into one car. Hiran, Kenney and me, all were above 95 kg and about 6 foot tall. The only thin human among us was Dinu even Anand was also a above normal guy.

We arranged our entire luggage in the car thanks to the large boot space of the Mitsubishi Lancer. As decided earlier we took the Nagercoil rout. To reduce congestion the front seats was taken by the couples. Me , Anand and Hiran took the backseat.

At about 10.30 pm we started our trip to Dhanushkodi with five people squeezed into a 10 year old Mitsubishi Lancer.

Dhanushkodi Travelogue Day 1

Day 1: The Preparation

Explorer :Martin Jacob

One fine evening I got a call from my brother “We are going for trip to Dhanushkodi. Are you interested…? “. At that point I didnt knew what or where Dhanushkdodi was. Kenney (brother) told me that he is going from Ernakulam to Trivandrum and we can start the journey from Trivandrum. That day I packed my bags and went with him to Trivandrum.

We started the journey to Trivandrum at about 11.pm (Kottayam and Trivandrum is about 200km apart). The 10 year old Mitsubishi Lancer (my brother`s) which had a mileage of 2 Lakh kilometer performed like a war horse. In the Erattupetta-Ettumanoor road we touched speed of 100km/hr. We couldn’t maintain that speed because our cars light was not that good and vehicles coming opposite to us was not dimming their light. Upto Chenganoor we had the problem of bad roads and reckless drivers, after Chenganoor the roads where good. By good I mean that it was well maintained with no gutters, wide and with all the reflectors in place. In that strech I was able to get the maximum output of our car and it was touching 130 to 120 km/hr (sorry bro you were sleeping). Around 12.30 am we stopped at Adoor for a small tea break. 12.45 am we resumed the journey; rest of the journey was smooth. We reached Trivandrum around 3.00 am.

Dhanushkodi Travelogue Day 2

The fourth version of Grand Kerala Shopping festival is scheduled to be held from Dec 1, 2010 to Jan 14, 2011. Grand Kerala Shopping Festival is organized by Kerala government and all shopping ventures spread across the State can become its partners. Through this Shopping festival the whole Kerala becomes a big shopping mall. The fest is conducted by the Tourism department in coordination with Industries and Commerce, Finance and Local self government Departments. Kerala changes to an international shopping destination during this festival. Lucky draws, bumper prizes and lot of discounts are awaiting the shoppers during this festival. Grand Kerala Shopping festival is counted as the largest shopping festival in Asia. This Shopping festival can generate good tax revenue to Government.

For details of last year’s Grand Kerala Shopping Festival

The 6^th edition of Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) will be held from 23^rd to 26^th of September 2010 at Bolgatty Palace Cochin. KTM exhibition is held once in 2 years. The last KTM Expo was held in 2008. This is the most notable international B2B tourism fest which Kerala hosts. KTM 2010 will have the presence of more than 1500 bearers from different countries including Germany, Italy, U.S, France etc. KTM 2010 participants include representatives of Travel agencies, Airlines, Media etc.

Kerala Travel Mart is the best launch pad for the tourism related firms in Kerala.  The program schedule of KTM 2010 are given below

Onam is the most important and popular festival of Kerala celebrated every year.  Onam 2010 is on August 23, 2010. All Malyalies around the world celebrate Onam irrespective of caste and religion. Basically Onam is a harvesting festival. In the fables Onam marks the visit of Kerala’s mystical king Maveli.

The 58^th Nehru trophy boat race will be held today afternoon at Punnamada Lake Alleppey. Nehru trophy boat race is the most notable boat race held in Kerala. It attracts a lot of tourists to this Gods own Country. This boat race is held in the memory of our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru trophy of this year is made more attractive with the presence of Hon.President Pratibha Patil. She will inaugurate the boat race by around 2.00pm. This time here are 19 snake boats competing for the trophy.  There are 60 boats in total for all sections.

Every year the Nehru trophy is held on the second Saturday of August.

Results:

Chundan Vallam( Snake boat)

First prize : Jawahar Tayankari by Kumarakom  Town Boat Club

Second prize: Paiyppadan by Kainakari UBC

Thrid prize: Sri Ganeshan by Kavalam Karumadaikuttan Boat Club

Fourth prize: Pattara by Kumarakom Boat Club.

Churulan Vallam

First prize : Velangadan

Second prize:Kuruppuparamban

Thrid prize: Kodimatha

Fourth prize:Vengal Puthenveedu

Iruttukutti

First prize :St. Sebastian

Second prize:Sree Guruvayoorappan

Thrid prize:Jalarani

]]> http://yeskerala.com/index.php/nehru-trophy-boat-race/feed/ 0 http://yeskerala.com/index.php/onam-package-from-ktdc/ http://yeskerala.com/index.php/onam-package-from-ktdc/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:26:34 +0000 News Reporter http://yeskerala.com/?p=2564

KTDC introduced special packages for Onam targeting the families on Kerala. It is a good opportunity to spend the holidays in various attractive tourist locations of Kerala. The 14 Tamarind Easy hotels and 6 Economy hotels of KTDC are brought in chain for organizing these packages. The package branded as “Sundara Keralam” covers important tourist spots of all districts. The “Utarayanam” package covers the beauty of Malabar and “Dakshinayanam” is the exploration of Travancore. Each of these packages covers beaches, backwaters, hills, wildlife sanctuary, pilgrim centers and historic monuments.

Nine days package for 2 people cost 1000 Rs. The package covers room rent, daily breakfast and all taxes. 5 days package is available for 5000 Rs. For each extra day, a sum of 1250 will be charged. The trips can be booked at the central reservation in KTDC’s corporate office, Trivandrum or via e-mail. The bookings can also be done at KTDC’s Chaitram hotel at Tampanoor Trivandrum, Cochin Marine Drive, Malabar Mansion at Calicut,Tamarind hotels of Kollam, Alleppey ,Thrissur and Kannur.

This is with regard to the request of an All-Party delegation from Kerala to reduce the width of National Highways in Kerala from the stipulated 45 metre to 30 metre. We feel that this decision, taken at an All-Party Meet on 20 th April, 2010, is disappointing and lacks farsightedness.

The width was reduced to 45 metre from the National Standard of 60 metre in 2007, based on a representation from the State Government, citing high population density and non-availability of land as the reasons.

Present 45/30 meter NH roads are already bursting at their seams and traffic blocks have become an everyday feature. With a high vehicle-to-population ratio in Kerala (1: 6 as compared to the national average of 1:25) the present National Highway road network is already experiencing traffic levels higher than the road capacity. Also the vehicle density of Kerala is 170/ Sq km as compared to the national average of 30/Sq km. Research shows that traffic volume, particularly on National Highways 17 and 47, is likely to exceed road capacity levels by nearly three times in a 10-year period and about six times in another 20 years (10-12% traffic growth rate).

The National Highways connect main cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur and Kozhikode to each other and to other towns and villages. It is also the centre point of trade, with approximately 80% of goods for consumption been transported through it. Kerala’s three airports as well as Cochin Port and other ports are connected by these National Highways. It is estimated that around 8.5 lakh persons use the highways every day. If the width is reduced to 30 metre, it will cause chaos and hamper the daily activities of countless common people and business community at large. An estimated Rs. 2700 crore per annum can be saved by way of savings in man hours, fuel, maintenance and wear and tear of vehicles by a well maintained highway system.

The number of accidents and fatalities is high, with an average 100 accidental deaths or grievous injuries happening everyday on Kerala roads. A study report shows that most of the people affected by accidents are the bread winners of families of lower income group. Total number of people affected by road accidents each year is about three times that of number of people affected by land acquisition in the present proposed NH improvement.

It may kindly be noted that in the case of collected BOT model only users pay. Otherwise, when the Govt. charges no user fee, more tax has to be from the general public to build the roads and thus people who are not using this facility also have to pay for it. This may please be compared with the model of electricity and water supply where Govt. collects the charges only from the users.

Finally, disaster management and national security concerns are better addressed by a proper highway system connecting coastal villages. Good connectivity and access will help the State respond faster in emergency situations. Evacuation and transportation of the masses will be possible only when there is proper connectivity between the district headquarters and villages to other parts of the State.

The allegation that land acquisition will affect 24 lakh persons is exaggerated and unfounded. Study reports show that only about 50000 people is actually affected.  If the concerns of the people affected by land acquisition are resolved properly people will be ready to give their land for the proposed widening, which will be in the larger interest of the entire state.

This issue is indeed, one that needs immediate intervention of the Hon.  Chief Minister and the Hon. Minister for Public Works.