New Tehri is an active holiday hub

After the flood disaster last year, Uttarakhand has been working hard to revive its tourism industry. The two-day Adventure Tourism Tehri Lake Festival(October 9-10),organised by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, brought the resettled town of New Tehri (the old town was submerged because of the Tehri dam construction) the promise of eco, luxury, adventure and religious tourism. This &lsquodev bhoomi&rsquo is all set to start a Himalaya darshan tour and a winter Chardham Yatra along with a host of land, water and aerial adventure activities in and around Tehri Lake.

Under the initiative, the 44-sq-km Tehri Lake will host &lsquosustainable and eco-friendly&rsquo adventure sports sea planes will offer joyrides and Himalaya darshan there will be lake cruises with fine dining cable cars eco-friendly log huts and angling and the area around the lake will offer sports like sailing, paragliding, jet skiing and mountain biking. Both budget and luxury travellers have been promised enough options here. Local youth will be trained for the tourism industry, and homestays will be developed in the area. To those worried about the impact of these activities on the Tehri dam, Umakant Panwar, Secretary of Tourism, Uttarakhand government, gave an assurance that no activities would be permitted within a 2km radius of the dam. Amidst all these, the problem of poor road connectivity did not go unnoticed to support and promote the future of tourism in the state, the government also promised scheduled air connectivity. Keen to get business going, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board has set a deadline of three months (end of 2014) to make these plans come to life. However, a more realistic deadline, according to state Chief Minister Harish Rawat, is the middle of next year. Pack your bags, then, for a summer of 2015 at Tehri Lake.