New Delhi: The city of Delhi will be marketed
as a "brand" to foreign and domestic visitors during the
upcoming Commonwealth Games with the help of 40 tourist
information-cum-food kiosks across the capital.
The first such `tourist info-cafe` was unveiled by Mayor
Prithvi Raj Sawhney near Red Fort today. Within the next three
days, 30 more such kiosks will be fully functional in MCD
areas and 10 in NDMC areas, officials said.
The cafe, which has been installed by private agency Ved
Pohoja Associates with support from MCD, has a 30X20 inch
touch screen to provide information to visitors on eight
foreign and Indian languages about tourist attractions in the
city, its culture and heritage, shopping areas, food,
accommodation and nightlife.
"The kiosks will also sell street food and beverages of
Delhi, which will be safe and hygienic. In this stall, which
is near the Chandni Chowk, the famous parathas, chaat, jalebi
and lassi of walled city will be available," MCD Remunerative
Project Cell chief Amiya Chandra said.
The info-cafes will focus on "city branding", selling
T-shirts, bags, caps and mugs with themes like "I Love Delhi"
and "Delhi Dilwalaon Ka" under the brand tag of "Delhi
Memories", apart from Indian handicrafts items and coffee
table books on Delhi, he said.
"This will be a big help for foreign tourists during the
Games. They can get a lot of information via the touch
screens. The items that are being sold are all eco-friendly.
The project is aimed at increasing the popularity of Delhi as
a tourist attraction," the Mayor told reporters.
"This is an MCD initiative which has later also been
adopted by the NDMC too," Sawhney said.
The MCD said it has not incurred any expenditure in the
project which has been undertaken in a public-private
partnership mode. Chandra said the stalls will be operational
for 100 days and the private agency will get profit from the
sale of items. After that, the units will be transferred to
MCD which will use them as government-to-citizen kiosks.
"We will transform the stalls to G2C kiosks. Touch screens
will be there, but no items will be sold." he said.
The touch screens will provide information on ATMs, police
stations and hospitals along with important contact numbers
other than travel related information about Jaipur and Agra.
All the data can be downloaded using bluetooth technology.
"The concept has been designed by us keeping in mind the
fact that there was no serious attempt to sell Delhi as a
brand despite its rich heritage and culture," Pohoja, who has
conceived the project along with three of his friends, said.
PTI