Berhampur, Feb 10( Odisha.in)Tampara Boat Club, which is one of its kind in eastern India with tremendous tourist potentiality remains neglected due to apathetic attitude of the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation as well as the State Government.
Tampara is a place about 125 Kms southwards from Bhubaneshwar, on NH 5 and 25 kms from Berhampur. It was inaugurated as a tourist spot on 22 nd March, 2006, and is under the management of Orissa Tourism Development Corporation ( OTDC). Tthe buildings, dining hall and a kitchen has been built at a cost of Rs 73 lakhs.
It is slowly developing as the prime water sport destination. Right now it has a Boat Club with 2 water scooters, 5 Padle boats, Kayaks, Sailboats and wind surfing facility for which Rs 5 lakhs has been spent.
Location wise it is close to Gopalpur-on- sea. It also has two AC rooms for overnight, but the sad part is that it does not have a single eatery in the vicinity.
Because of lack of adequate infrastructure few people visit the area. Hardly 1,200 people could use the boating facility in one year. The other bank of the lake. Where one finds existing a completely different world. Swaying Casuarinas and cashew grooves, number of local birds and even snake pits etc.
Though the V.I.P. visitors to the Boat Club enjoy lot of attention and facilities, the ordinary visitors hardly get such facilities. The purity of Tampara lies beyond imagination. The solitary boat anchored on the other bank says it all.
Talking to Odisha.in Subhakanta Ray, a tourist from Kolkota said, though there is tremendous scope for development of this lake and the Boat Club to attract thousands of local as well as international tourists, the OTDC has virtually taken no steps to publicize this unique spot .
Odisha.in