Wednesday, December 28 2005 10:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Viper Island (Andaman and Nicobar): Fed on unlimited free publicity through the year after tsunami and a mega-plan to overhaul communication and connectivity, the Indian Ocean archipelago here is eyeing a sizeable chunk of the regional tourism pie next year by diverting international tourists headed for Maldives and Seychelles.

Post tsunami anniversary, as tourists trooped through British era ruins in this tiny island off capital Port Blair, the buoyancy in the sector was there for everyone to see the regularity of the ferry services, the foreign backpackers, the mobile 'chai wallah' and the brisk sales at the ticket counters.

''We came here curious to know what the place looks like one year after tsunami and we were surprised to find no availability in all the up market lodging properties. The islands have been battered by the calamity but people are still thronging it,'' Sudarshan Murthy, holidaying in the islands with his family, said.

The scene was just the same at Ross and Smith joined by a sandbar, the USP of the twin islands, pegged as the best on the 'in and around Port Blair' itinerary.

The 'Big Picture', says the islands' Tourism secretary Chetan Sanghi, is to get some of the 100-odd flights in the South East Asia region touch down at Port Blair and also create a submarine optical fibre system that gives global tourists high-end bandwidth connectivity even in the remotest islands of the conglomerate.

''Our three and half km runway is enough to provide world class landing facilities and the Center has responded very favourably to our proposal for setting up an international airport here. This should put us on the global map,'' Sanghi says.

To get the western tourists here, the island administration has also finalized the blueprint of an under-water cable from Chennai to Port Blair and the other 35 inhabited islands of the group to shift from a transponder-based system to broadband connectivity for telecommunications.

''One reason why not many high-end tourists want to stay in the islands for long is the poor communication channels. You can't finish a call or access the Internet hassle-free.

The Rs 300 crore optical fibre project, okayed by the Center, is now being assessed by BSNL for the final go-ahead,'' he said.

Sanghi is hopeful that the administration's proposal of bettering inter-island connectivity by adding two Dornier aircraft and two helicopters to its existing skeletal fleet of just one fair-weather Pavan Hans aircraft.

There was also talk of a trans-shipment port at Campbell Bay that could take load off Colombo and create a second lifeline for the islands apart from its only commercial port in the capital city.

''When this project comes through, it would be a major boon for the remote islands and substantially improve the infrastructure currently skewed by poor logistics,'' Sanghi says.