Guwahati: Assam Tourism Development Corporation will sign an MoU with Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) for evaluating a greenfield project in Manas National Park.

At present, the Bashbari Lodge property in Manas National Park is being run by Jungle Travels.

The IHCL is India's largest hospitality brand by market capitalisation and has a portfolio of 240 hotels across 4 continents.

This is one of the private sector investments coming up under the Assam Tourism Policy 2022 which was announced yesterday.

The Assam Cabinet has given approval to the Assam Tourism Policy, 2022 which aims to develop adequate infrastructure at places of tourist interest with connecting circuits while taking into consideration the ecological and cultural sensitivities of Assam.

One of the main features of the policy will be promoting private sector investments in the sector from domestic and international players through a public-private partnership mode.

Tea Tourism has been given a lot of importance in the new tourism policy and 50 Tea Gardens with iconic bungalows close to existing tourism circuits will be selected for the development of Tourism Infrastructure on PPP mode.

Fifty percent of the project infrastructure cost is to be contributed as a State share, which will be amounting to Rs 2 crore. The total scheme outlay for 50 tea gardens is Rs 100 crore.

The guidelines for the promotion and development of tea tourism infrastructure have been approved too.

The policy will support the development of Home Stay (Amar Alohi) schemes among local communities. There will be a focus on coordination between the Tourism and Transportation sectors.

The policy will help in the creation of Special Tourism Zones (STZ) by promoting Tea tourism, Golf tourism, Medical & Wellness, and Adventure tourism along with the existing Wildlife and Heritage circuit.