IMPHAL, October 20: The Sanjenthong will be opened to the public well ahead of the Sangai festival and repairing of the roads in the vicinity of the festival venue has already been initiated.
This was stated by Chief Secretary O Nabakishore answering to media persons at a press meet held in connection with the upcoming Sangai festival 2015 this afternoon at the conference hall of Old Secretariat Building.
The Chief Secretary said like last year, this year also a chartered flights of the Golden Myanmar with a seating capacity of around 75 persons will land at the Imphal Airport twice.
The first flight will land on November 21 in Imphal and return back to Mandalay on the same day and come back on November 26, he said.
In the process, the flight will bring 75 tourists from Myanmar to Manipur and 75 from here will visit Myanmar. This will help promotion of tourism and developing relationship between the two countries, he added.
Secretary Tourism Nidhi Mani Tripathi, who was also present at the press meet, informed that atleast 15 Ambassadors and High Commissioners especially from South-East Asian countries and South Asian counties have been invited for the upcoming Sangai Festival 2015.
`A couple of them have shown interest also and they are inquiring about the programme,` she said.
She further said the Ministry of External Affairs have come forward to assist the Tourism Department this time.
`They (Ministry of External Affairs) have also arranged for an interaction meeting with the High Commissions and diplomatic houses in Delhi of these 15 countries on October 23.`
`And our Resident Commissioner, Commissioners of Commerce and Industry, and Tourism departments will be interacting with them,` she said.
`We will be making a brief presentation on the Sangai Festival. We want to explain to them that what kind of art form, culture, our rich history and heritage we are going to showcase and how it is going to strengthen our ties with these South Asian countries,` she said.
As it is also going to strengthen the Act East Policy of the Government of India, the Ministry of External Affairs of India has come forward this time showing keen interest, she said.
She said the Embassy of Japan has also shown interest and are inquiring about the programme details of Sangai festival.
`We have also invited Indian ambassadors of Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Cambodia as these countries are very close to India and we are sharing our cultural and ethnic identities.`
The Chief Secretary said this time the Thailand delegates have made a special request to the State Government to allot 25 stalls for their products.
`Thai products are definitely popular in Manipur and so there will be 25 stalls earmarked for Thailand,` he said.
Myanmar will have about five stalls where they would sell their products like precious stones and semi-precious stones and other items, he informed.
Other attractions of the upcoming Sangai Festival include cultural programmes, exhibitions of dance forms of all the nine districts of the State, MMTA`™s adventure games and sports, Horticulture department`™s horticulture products like flowers etc.
There will be an improvement in the layout at the festival venue as we are consulting various experts on the issue, he said.
Huts showcasing the lifestyles and culture of every community and every tribe residing in Manipur will be exhibited as a heritage village. This is going to be the main attraction for this year, he added.
`We expect a huge success in the upcoming Sangai festival 2015. We are also getting co-operation from all the State government departments,` the chief secretary added.
Secretary Tourism said we are following the traditional practice of having MMTA for eco-tourism and adventure sports, and the cultural evenings as we have doing in the past.
This time Shumang Leela performances have also been proposed and at the same time we have proposed for Asian theatres where China, Japan and obviously something from India and Manipur will be participating, so that will be an international theatre festival during the Sangai festival, she added.
We (Tourism Department) will be organizing Myanmar-Manipur heritage conference in which the culture of Myanmar and Manipur would be presented and there will be academic sessions also on the performances.
Commerce and Industries Department is also planning to have a couple of conferences, she said.
On October 22 or 23rd they will be having a food processing conference because it has lots of potential, she added.
This time we are also trying to showcase our culture thought traditional exhibition huts, the process of preparing it has already started.
This is a new adding in an aim to showcase the rich and diverse culture of various communities who are residing in the State, she added.
