MAMATA BANERJEE is dead serious about converting her dreams into reality – she wanted to turn Kolkata into London, in her mind’s eye the beaches of Digha could compete with those of Goa and the hills of Darjeeling could wean away tourists from Switzerland.

 

Her next stop is the Sunderbans – if properly exploited, it could boost revenue from tourism several times over.

 

The huge number of boats accompanying the entourage of the Chief Minister gave an impression that the whole of the Writers Building from the ministers and local MLAs to the clerks had latched on to the Chief Minister and assembled for a paid picnic.

 

Her agenda was to make it a tourism hot-spot and work towards reducing unemployment by tapping the various aspects of tourism.

 

She was there for six hours with only one stop at a place called Pakhirala – this is already a tourist venue with a number of lodges.

 

There were all and sundry in her team who had the remotest connection to the Sunderbans – the head count was, reportedly, around 600.

 

To be more precise – there were 25 launches along with two speed boats of the West Bengal Police.

 

It remains to be seen how far she would be able to promote the venture to the international community because that is where the dollars would come from.