News

Northeast Frontier Railway launches leased cargo train from Assam

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) as part of its Business Development Unit (BDU) initiatives from Saturday started operation of leased Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) from Assam to Goa carrying ready-made garments, tea, bamboo products and other handicrafts, spices, edible oil. In another important step, the NFR also started operation of goods train from other states of India to Rani Gaidinliu station at Tamenglong in Manipur. Officials said that the first goods train reached Rani Gaidinliu station carrying 53 wagons of ballast needed for the under construction Jiribam - Imphal (111 km) new railway line. Rani Gaidinliu station is 24 km away from Jiribam (along Manipur-Assam border) by rail and is situated by the side of river Makru over which a giant rail bridge has been constructed. More goods trains carrying other items including essential commodities will be arriving soon, providing a boost to the local economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) Minister, G Kishan Reddy, on Saturday, expressed their confidence that the connectivity of the Northeastern region would be further boosted. Modi tweeted, "Transformation of the Northeast continues. Manipur's connectivity will be enhanced and commerce will be boosted. Wonderful products from the state can travel all over the nation." "Historic day for Manipur and entire northeast, after 75 years of India's Independence, first goods train reaches Rani Gaidinliu Railway Station, Tamenglong in Manipur. The Narendra Modi govt is committed to enhancing infrastructure connectivity and economic prosperity in the NER," said Reddy in his tweet. NFR Chief Public Relations Officer Guneet Kaur said that first leased Parcel Cargo Express Train (PCET) carrying food products, ready-made garments, tea, bamboo products and other handicrafts, spices, edible oil, mosquito repellants on Saturday started from Azara (Guwahati) in Assam to Vasco-daGama in Goa. The cargo express train would reach its destination in 87 hours covering a distance of 3,358 kms between Azara and Vasco-da-Gama via Siliguri, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Hubli with loading and unloading facilities. The train, which would operate on round trip basis, consists of 15 van parcels of 24 tonne capacity each and one brake van for the first six months and a total of 20 parcel vans thereafter up to next 6 years. "This new route would not only strengthen the connectivity between the northeastern states with the South and Western states of India, but also act as a catalyst for business growth. It would act as an efficient and reliable time bound solution to the supply chain needs of Eastern India. It will bring a boom to the industrial and agricultural sector across the Eastern region," the CPRO said.

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Canada updates travel guidelines; modifies pre-departure test requirements for Indian travellers

In a major relief to outbound travellers, especially students, the Canadian government has updated travel guidelines for incoming travellers for India and Morocco. Effective January 28, travellers from India are no longer required to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test from a third country before entering Canadian borders. In a communication, Transport Canada removed the pre-departure test requirement for travellers coming to Canada on direct or indirect flights from India or Morocco as they will not be required to obtain a valid negative pre-departure Covid-19 test from a third country. All such travellers entering Canada are now subject to the same pre-entry test requirements, regardless of their departure country. As per the current requirement for travellers from all countries, all travellers to Canada, unless exempted, are required to present a valid negative predeparture Covid-19 molecular test taken no more than 72 hours before a scheduled flight or arrival at a land border, or a positive molecular test result taken 10-180 days before departure to Canada. Other entry requirements All travellers arriving in Canada are advised to pre-register with the testing providers prior to travel since they might be required to be tested for Covid-19 on arrival at the airport. The authorities said that pre-registration will help reduce congestion in airports and processing time for travellers in crowded areas. Registration upon arrival takes about 15 minutes, whereas testing itself takes 2-4 minutes for pre-registered travellers. All travellers, regardless of how long they were away from Canada, continue to be required to submit their mandatory information via ArriveCAN (mobile app or website), including proof of vaccination in English or French and a quarantine plan prior to arriving in Canada. All travellers eligible to enter Canada must complete the mandatory predeparture molecular Covid-19 test unless exempt. Antigen tests are not accepted. The Government of Canada continues to advise Canadians to avoid non-essential travel outside of the country at this time.

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UAE: Ras Al Khaimah to offer new hot air balloon, skydiving, aerobatic flight experiences

The aviation adventure enthusiasts in the UAE will soon have more choices to fulfil their dreams and passion. Aviation adventure tourism firm Actionflight Aviation will launch hot air balloon, skydiving and aerobatic flights experiences for aviation adventure aficionados in the first quarter of 2022. The company recently tied up with Ras Al Khaimah International Airport to establish an airfield as the operational base for the adventures. "Initially, we'll be offering an aerobatic experience with a Red Bull Air Race type aircraft. It'll be a passenger aerobatic ride in one of the world's most high-performance aerobatic aircraft. Since these are very high-performance aerobatic airplanes, there will be a pilot plus a passenger. Aerobatic aircraft are very high powered and capable aircraft so it's going to be a very, very exciting ride," said Wayne Jack, COO and director of flight operations at Actionflight Aviation. Departing from Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, an aerobatic flight will be an approximately 20-minute experience. In addition, hot air balloon experiences will also be introduced in Ras Al Khaimah for the first time with a flight duration of around one hour. The company operate two very large 450,000 cubic foot hot air balloon envelopes with a basket capacity of up to 24 passengers. "For hot air balloon journey, passengers would be picked up early in the morning because balloon flights usually take off in the morning when the conditions are nice and calm. The flight will have an approximate duration of one hour. Once they land, they'll go back to the base at the Tower Links Golf Club for a gourmet breakfast," Jack told Khaleej Times in a recent interview. For the skydiving, the drop zone is in the airspace above the Tower Links Golf Club. "The difference between our drop zone and others is that we have beautiful views of the mountains, mangroves on the coastline, green manicured golf club and a lot of lovely wildlife. We have a view of 15,000 feet right across the Straits of Hormuz due to the availability of airspace, which is something unique to have," he added. Jack revealed that they are working through the final implementation of the facilities, and startup will be imminent. "We just getting started with our social media channels while our website is up and running. We'll be taking bookings fairly soon. I can't put a date on it as yet. But yes, it'd be in this quarter," he said, adding that prices for these adventures cannot be revealed at this point but assured that they will be competitive. The northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, home to the highest peak Jebel Jais in the UAE, has been focusing heavily on different aspects of the tourism sector, especially adventure tourism, as well as hospitality. Jebel Jais is also home to the world's longest zipline, whose track extends over a length of 2.83 km. To boost the hospitality sector, tourism authorities and master-developer Marjan on Tuesday, announced that Las Vegas-based hotel and casino operator Wynn Resorts to open a 1,000-room resort off the coast of Ras Al Khaimah by 2026. The Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority has also announced the formation of a new division that will regulate "integrated resorts". These include hotel operations, convention space, entertainment, restaurants and lounges, spa, retail and gaming facilities. Jack is very positive about Ras Al Khaimah as a destination for adventure tourism. "Ras Al Khaimah is a very popular staycation destination for people within the UAE as well as for visitors from the outside. It has everything that one could want as a traveller, such as beautiful clear waters, mountains, sand dunes. We believe that our services will be very welcomed by all the resorts and hotels, and the tourists visiting the region," he added.

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Places like holiday homes are the new go to destinations post pandemic: TAAI

The holiday home segment has seen a surge in the midst of all of this commotion of pandemic & variants. For long the concept of a vacation home has been gaining traction. Commenting on this new concept gaining momentum, Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI said that crisis does bring opportunity & Covid 19 pandemic witnessed the concept of a holiday home or a second home. “With most corporate professionals working from home, geography is no longer a constraint. Millennials who are scouting for a perfect balance between work and personal life, have fuelled the concept of a weekend retreat or getaway in a holiday home. Given that people are giving extra importance to health and hygiene post pandemic and looking for a home like environment unlike hotels and resorts, a holiday home makes perfect sense,” Mayal said. "The new transmissible variant Omicron has had a significant impact on travel and hotel industries. Looking at the changed demographic of the traveller & destination has made tourism service providers make the best of any opportunity coming their way, till the time they don’t see scaling in tourism. Earlier, for a getaway, people would either rent a place or check into a hotel, but with the pandemic, people are apprehensive about common spaces and thus more receptive to the idea of having a holiday home which is another reason for rising popularity of this concept. Also, these houses can be rented out to home stays and tourism firms as well which is an added advantage,” the TAAI President further elaborated. Speaking on the newly sparked concept of holiday homes, Mayal also said that it makes financial and practical sense to have your own home in a beautiful, well equipped, and fully stocked place. “Holiday Homes are considered relatively safe investment, as they produce higher capital appreciation than residences in metro areas. It could also be treated as a burgeoning market, that offers investors a secure and consistent source of income,” she mentioned. Nevertheless, as TAAI we are confident that tourism will rebound & will be a better industry with multi-fold opportunities but work from home is here to stay & so is the concept of holiday homes, to live & work from a better environment,” she concluded.

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FAITH asks MoT to market India’s cross-country road trip potential to the world

As the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has started discussions with the trade and industry in the country on the strategies for ‘Vision@2047’ for tourism, the Federation of Associations of Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), the umbrella body of 10 trade associations in the sector, has suggested the government to consider “repositioning the marketing campaigns” to promote India as a destination for a cross country road trip. The suggestion has been made based on the recent survey conducted by a US online channel, where they placed India among the top 10 list of countries for cross country road trip index of the world. The channel has surveyed 118 countries to prepare the index considering multiple parameters such as heritage site, biodiversity, landscapes, gasoline cost, average holiday rental price, etc., of a destination. “India’s ranking is higher than traditional tourism countries. This topranking can probably form a vital cornerstone of India’s post-Covid global repositioning and marketing campaigns. This ranking can be leveraged both for inbound and domestic to demonstrate the inherent tourism attractiveness of our country and enable for gaining post-Covid tourism market share,” FAITH said in a statement. With 40 UNESCO world heritage sites to its credit, India has the highest number of world heritage sites among the first 10 in the index. The top ranking in the index, the US, has only 24 UNESCO heritage sites, and the second-placed, Mexico has 35. In terms of the number of natural assets, landscapes, India has 5 and 6 points, as per the Cross country road trip index. As per the index, among the Asian countries, it’s the fifth ranking Malaysia which scores high in terms of gas prices and the average holiday rental prices. While gasoline price and average holiday rental are USD 5.47 and USD 166.74 in the 10th ranked India, the same is USD 1.87 and USD 82.54 in Malaysia.

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Camper vans to get tax relief in Maharashtra

Camper vans to get tax relief in Maharashtra To boost campervan tourism, the state transport department has decided to grant exemption from tax imposed under Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Tax Act (LXV of 1958) to all caravans or camper vans, registered with the Directorate of Tourism. “Many people prefe to travel alone and caravans provide safety during pandemic,” said an official. The Maharashtra government also plans to deploy electric vehicles (EV) to transport tourists in the renowned world heritage sites of Ajanta and Ellora, state tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray said in Aurangabad on Thursday. He was speaking to media after visiting Ellora and Ajanta tourist centres that have been shut for a long time due to non availability of electricity. He also said centres will be started here so that scholars can come and study the region, which is replete with history. On people lining up along the roads on some stretches to welcome him, the minister said he might get a call from the chief minister as the state government is very strict about not allowing over-crowding amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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