Port Blair, Jan 10: The Member of Parliament, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma has requested the Hon’ble Lt. Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to reopen tourism in Wandoor, New Wandoor and Jolly Bouy, once the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

During a recent meeting with the Hon’ble Lt. Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands at Raj Niwas, the MP mentioned that this will open up employment opportunities for thousands of people once again and also give a much needed boost to Tourism industry of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

The Member of Parliament also highlighted that since the last three years the Wandoor beach has been kept closed for tourism, which was one of the major tourism destinations and also a holiday spot for local islanders.

He explained that because of the closure of Wandoor beach, since the last three years, hardly any tourist has visited the beach, which has broken the backbone of the local economy of the area as roughly 25-30 per cent of people in the Wandoor area were directly or indirectly dependent on Tourism.

Kuldeep Rai Sharma mentioned that the petty shop owners at Wandoor beach, Wandoor jetty area, Hasmatabad, Myamiyo region were largely dependent on tourism for their daily bread. Other than this, the coconut sellers, hawkers, small dinghy owners, tourist vehicle owners/ drivers have also suffered heavy loss for this closure.

He added that the Jolly Bouy Island has also been kept closed, because of which boat operators, boat staff and tourism stakeholders are suffering heavy losses. Not only this, the tourism activities at New Wandoor region are also closed and hence people associated with game fishing and small resorts are suffering losses, he pointed.