On Wednesday, the state government announced that this year’s festival will begin on December 9, 2011 and end on January 15, 2012. This year’s attractions will be hot-air balloons and all-terrain vehicles, and some stars and film crew from Bollywood.
State tourism minister Jay Narayan Vyas said, “The response from tourists from all over the world this year is overwhelming. All the tents for the first three days have been booked while for the rest of the days, 80% of booking has already been done.”
“Last year, some 800 tourists visited Kutch while this year about 32,000 visitors have visited the place,” the minister said.
Talking about the plans to make Kutch a preferred location for film shooting, principal secretary of tourism department, Vipul Mitra, said: “We have received calls from actors like Suniel Shetty and Gulshan Grover expressing their keenness to visit Kutch during the festival. Shetty has been to Kutch earlier for his films like ‘Border’ and ‘Refugee’. Further, the crew of film-maker Vishal Bharadwaj will also be visiting the festival to explore the location for their next film.”
Apart from hot-air balloons and all-terrain vehicles, there will be other attractions like camel safari, desert car rally, horse ride and food court. Cultural programmes showcasing the culture of Kutch will also be there.
The government has announced a special package keeping in mind Christmas and New Year celebrations. As many as 440 AC and non-AC tents have been erected at Dhordo. The traditional eco-friendly houses of Kutch known as ‘Bhunga’ will also be made available to tourists. The government will organise beach festival on the seashore of Mandvi and a special kite festival will be organised in the white Rann.
At ‘Kutch Carnival’ in Bhuj, about 32 artiste-groups will perform on the banks of Hamirsar Lake.
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