Call to set up tourist info centre at heart of Ooty

Ooty: Public clamour is on the rise here on the necessity of setting up a tourist information centre on the busy Garden road  in Ooty, as tourists find it rather difficult to visit the tourist office located in a remote corner of the town.

Tourism is the lifeline in the hills, but the Tourism department is lethargic and inactive.  The only occasion when it moves is during summer, as it is forced to organise the annual summer festivals. Their sluggishness and at times plain incompetence came to the fore during the inauguration of the summer festival last Saturday with unsavoury incidents in front of the State Tourism minister, Vellamandi Natarajan.

While the Tourism office here used to be an active unit when its office was located on Commercial road here in the past, its whereabouts are in question ever since it was moved to a remote corner on Wenlock road a decade ago.
Voices are now rising to set up a tourist office or tourist information centre on Garden road to "give real meaning to the existence of a tourist office".