Golf course gets nod

Darjeeling, May 15: Mamata Banerjee today laid the foundation stone for a golf course at Tiger Hill, a turf that was built around the 1900s and the revival of which has been a longstanding demand of the tourism industry. Sonam Bhutia, the executive director of GTA in charge of tourism department, said: “A sum of Rs 2.10 crore has been allotted by the state tourism department for land reclamation and development of the area where the golf course will be set up ” Sources said Worlds Sport Group, a Singapore-based firm, has inspected the area, 12km from here, and found it suitable to set up a golf course. “We will soon be inviting an expression of interest from across the globe for the project. The course will be built on a public-private-partnership,” Bhutia said. The nine-hole course will be spread over 31.85 acres and needs Rs 46 crore, sources said. The turf was built around 1900 and in 1907, the then district commissioner had leased it out to a club called Golf Links for 99 years. After the British left the country in 1947, Golf Links became almost defunct. The army used the course till the late 1980s and left the area later as documents stated that the land belonged to the Darjeeling Improvement Fund (department) under the district administration. In the mid-1990s the then chairman of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, Subash Ghisingh, moved in excavators and flattened a part of Tiger Hill to construct a helipad. But he failed to obtain clearance from the ministry of environment and forest and the project was shelved. Stakeholders of the tourism industry are happy with the development. “It is a much needed boost for tourism in Darjeeling. It will help in drawing a large number of high-end tourists. A golf course would be a great attraction,” said Suresh Periwal, president of Indian Association of Travel Agents (North Bengal-Sikkim chapter). Darjeeling receives around 3.5 lakh domestic tourists and 40,000 foreigners annually.