Mumbai to organise festival similar to Dubai Shopping Festival in November

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The Mumbai state government is planning to hold a festival in the city similar to the Dubai Shopping Festival. The event, dubbed as the Mumbai Festival, will take place in November this year, with the state anticipating roughly 10 million people to attend.

Visitors to the Mumbai Festival would receive excellent discounts, State Tourism Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha stated. This move is aimed to lure shoppers and visitors from all over the world.

“People across the world will participate in the festival. Tourism is one of the key sectors that help job generation to a large extent. The investment in the tourism industry would help Maharashtra to become a $1 trillion economy. It will help us in taking the state to the top position again,” Lodha said.

The state government had previously sought to emulate the Dubai Shopping Festival. During the Congress-NCP coalition government’s tenure, then-deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal announced intentions to conduct the Mumbai Shopping Festival through the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). The government had also enlisted the help of numerous retail trade organisations, but the proposal was eventually scrapped. Since then, the concept has been revisited on a regular basis.

Lodha also announced the Mumbai Eye, an observation wheel similar to the London Eye, one of the most prominent tourist attractions in the United Kingdom’s capital city.

The previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, had already introduced the proposal (BMC). It was intended for 1.5 acres in the Bandra reclamation but has not moved further due to technical issues. Amin Patel, a Congress Legislator, requested that the Mumbai Eye be built, and the minister replied in positive.

Lodha also designated the Kanheri caves in Sanjay Gandhi National Park as a tourist attraction, as well as the Vajreshwari temple in Thane’s Bhiwandi tehsil. The temple is well-known among worshippers, and also popular for the nearby hot springs.

The announcements were made by the Minister in the Legislative Assembly while responding to the debate on budgetary demands.

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