Orange Festival and Tourism Fair venue shifted to Kolkata

EOI, Siliguri, 22 Aug 2014: This winter, people of Kolkata will get an excellent opportunity to taste the exotic and sweet orange of Darjeeling and special delicious cuisines from the hills right at their doorsteps at the ‘Orange Festival and Tourism Fair’. It will be held at Salt Lake City Centre from December 5-7.
Orange growers will be awarded on the basis of the quality of their produce with the parameters including size, shape, quantity of juice and sweetness of the fruit. Besides the popular citrus fruit, various traditional food from the hills and Terai-Dooars such as momo, thukpa, butter tea, dried-fish dishes and many other popular items will also be available at the stalls.
“Foodstuff and other merchandise will come from Tourism Circuit No. 7, the result of our ceaseless efforts. There has been a phenomenal increase in the number of visitors (600-700 per cent) within a span of four years, which encouraged us to organise the Orange Festival and a Tourism Fair in Kolkata,” said an elated Raj Basu, tourism advisor to the Sikkim government and chair of the Cross-Border Committee, Adventure Tour Operators’ Association of India, during an exclusive interview over telephone.
He further said they have divided the orange producing and tourism linked-places of the hills into seven circuits: Salamandar-Orange Eco Tourism Circuit including Indo-Nepal border adjacent places and Mirik, (2) Kurseong DHR Heritage Orange Circuit with Sonada-Balasun area, (3) Teesta Eco Region Circuit incorporating Mangpu and Teesta Valley, (4) Noam-Chel-Teesta Circuit consisting of Oodlabari-Turibari and Cuikhim Bustee areas, (5) Neora Valley Eco Circuit with Kalimpong to Pedong-Lava-Samsing areas, (6) Jaldhaka Circuit comprising Indo-Bhutan border adjacent areas and (7) Central Doors Orange Circuit covering Toto Para and Jaigaon area.
These places offer unique scenic beauty, but most are not known to tourists. In a bid to attract and promote home-stay tourism facilities in the seven circuits, the fair has been shifted from Siliguri to Kolkata, said Basu.