KANNUR: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has been successfully promoting a number of ventures like banks, shopping malls, hospitals, newspapers and television channels. The ruling party is now foraying into Kerala’s booming tourism industry through a new cooperative.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan will throw open the gates of Vismaya Infotainment Center to the public in Kannur tomorrow in the presence of an array of state ministers and party leaders including his Politburo colleague Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
“This will show the world how strong and determined is the cooperative movement in Kerala that employs thousands of people. It is also a fitting reply to our detractors,” the CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters here after reviewing the progress of the work at the park.
According to the authorities, the park is getting finishing touches and it would be the biggest entertainment facility in Malabar.
“We hope to attract a large number of holidaymakers from Kerala’s northern districts and South Karnataka,” said P.P. Chandran, managing director of the Malabar Tourism Development Cooperative Society Limited, the company that the party incorporated to run the project.
The 300 million rupee-MTDCSL has 2,346 individuals and 142 institutions as investors. The company expects an average daily turnover of 350,000 rupees byway of entry fees.
“We are receiving tremendous response. We are mainly targeting the vacationing NRIs who used to visit such parks in Coimbatore or Kochi. The initial projection is 1000 visitors a day on an average,” Chandran told this newspaper. The Marxists-run park also hopes to attract hundreds of devotees visiting everyday the famed Parassinikkadavu Sri Muthappan temple where the offerings are toddy and dry fish.
Spread over 30 acres near the temple on the outskirts of the city where a new international airport is coming up, the park is built according to traditional North Kerala architectural style and has an artificial lake spread over two acres of land.
