Odisha’s Puri beach in race for ‘Blue Flag’ certification

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Jun 6, 2019 at 4:22 PM Updated On : Jun 7, 2019 at 3:20 PM

Bhubaneswar: Cheers for tourists as Puri sea beach in Odisha’s pilgrim city has been nominated by the Centre for the pilot project to get the Blue Flag certification.

The beach, which is one of the tourist destinations of the state, will be first to get the international status for environment-friendly and safety after fulfilling the criteria set by the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoEF).

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The sea beach, situated around 65 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, is the second in Odisha to get the nomination to carry out the Blue Flag beach project after Chandrabhaga.

Last year, Chandrabhaga beach in Konark was in the race to get the coveted tag. However, the expert team did not give nod to the beach under safety ground.

“The Blue Flag beach project is a scheme of the MoEF, which has undertaken several beaches across the country as the pilot project for demarcating a particular stretch. The project in Daman and Diu has almost completed. The Chandrabhaga beach, which was earlier in the project, had failed to clear the criteria on safety ground due to high wave following expert committee report. Later, they selected the stretch between Digabareni Square to Mayfair Hotel in Puri for the project,” said Puri Collector Balwant Singh.

In the pilot project, the beach will be developed ensuring the tourists for safe bathing. Secondly, the cleanliness of the sea water and beach will be in the focus to get the Blue Flag tag. Besides, the beach will be equipped with basic facilities and amenities of international standards for tourists, he said.

The district administration has handed over the land to the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) for development of the pilot project.

“The project will be carried out at total expenses of Rs 12 crore, out of which the Centre will be investing Rs 10 crore and the Society of Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM) will fund Rs 2 crore for the project,” said ICZMP Additional Project Director Debasish Ray.

“While the Centre will invest for the core activity of the project, we will deal with the peripheral activity including fencing, plantation at the beach and providing water and power. The beach will be awarded the Blue Flag certification after examination by a team of experts,” he added.

Besides Puri, the MoEF has selected a total of 13 beaches in India to transform those to international standards for tourists.