GUWAHATI: With the continued protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the state tourism department as well as the Northeast Frontier Railway have incurred losses worth more than Rs 600 crore.
The state tourism director, Jayanta Malla Baruah, had recently announced that the department alone has lost revenue worth Rs 500 crores in December owing to the violent protests which took place in various parts of the state.
During the past few weeks, Assam witnessed protests which also turned violent in some areas. Curfew was also imposed in Guwahati for a few days, which added to the tourism troubles.
The state’s tourist inflow also took a bad hit due to the political scenario and the department has anticipated a 30 per cent decline in the annual tourist footfall.
“The period from December to March is the peak tourist season for Assam. However, as the violent protests erupted in different corners of the State, including the capital city, a number of sectors, including tour operators, hoteliers, tour guides, transport services to name a few, have been badly hit. Even if we expect the revival of tourism sector from February, revenue not less than Rs 500 crore has been lost in December and the same can be anticipated for January,” Baruah said while addressing the media.
This apart, the Northeast Frontier Railway, too, lost a total of Rs 100 crores in the month of December. This included losses incurred due to the damage in railway property, and because of cancellation of trains.
