Berhampur: Tampara, a wetland near Chatrapur in Ganjam district, has got a facelift with various facilities to attract the tourists.
The 5.8 km-long and 670-meter wide wetland on NH 16 and 25 km from Berhampur was inaugurated as a tourist spot on March 22, 2006. Despite having tremendous tourism potentiality, it had failed to attract the tourists due to apathetic attitude of the authority for a long time.
A large brackish water body, Tampara was devastated in the cyclone Phailin in 2013. Two floating jetty with platforms, 2 water scooters, 6 paddle boats, 7 rowing boats were damaged during the Phailin in 2013 which blew away 22 decorative fibre electric light posts, static toilets, 20 KV sub-stations and many others.
The Minister of State for Culture and Tourism had laid the foundation stone for the infrastructure development of the Tampara wetland on September 13, 2015. Berhampur Development Authority (BeDA) spent Rs 8crore for the facelift.
Facilities like public conveniences, eco-parks, jetties, decorative lights, boating and others were developed as part of the project. It is slowly developing as the prime water sport destination.
Unfortunately, the place still does not have a facility of a Guest House to facilitate night halt for the tourists or any eatery in the vicinity.
