TTDC plans to expand its fleet strength

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC), which has been operating special package tours to many destinations, plans to expand its fleet strength owing to the good patronage to its tours.The plan is to buy additional Volvo coaches and 18-seater air conditioned coaches to cater to the increasing requirement of the tourists. At present, TTDC is operating tours ranging from half-a-day to 15-day duration with a fleet strength of 17 coaches. Over 30 tours are being organised by TTDC, which is also organisingLTC??? tours for the benefit of government employees.

The Sunny South tour covering the southern states is the second most popular after the daily Tirupati trip. Most of the two-week trips are patronised by NRIs from Malaysia and Singapore, sources said.Following an overwhelming response to the one-day Tirupati trip, the corporation recently launched the night tour to Tirupati on daily basis to facilitate devotees to have a darshan of Lord Venkateshwara and Goddess Padmavathy in the morning. With this, the daily week-day trips to Tirupati have been extended to the weekends.

Apart from these tours, TTDC also organises customised tours on requests from groups.Two 18 seater air conditioned coaches and one Volvo coach were inducted recently at a cost of Rs117 lakh replacing two worn out coaches. Also, for the first time, the corporation had introduced Wi-Fi connectivity at five of its hotels at Mamallapuram, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Coimbatore and Madurai Unit II.
 The state-owned entity, set up in 1971, is also in the process of identifying a bidder to renovate the boathouses near Chennai, a senior official said.