New Tourism Minister Calls for Greater Security

India’s new tourism minister Dr Mahesh Sharma said greater security checks, crackdown on touts and heli-services are some of the priority areas for him.

He said the government is also planning to make tourist taxis more secure by installing electronic chips to track their movement in the wake of concerns over safety, especially to women tourists.

"The first checkpoint is that after tourists disembark at our airports, we will give them the option of travelling by chip-enabled taxis, which would be secured. The complete bio-data of the taxi drivers will be available with us. It will be implemented in three months," he said.

Tough action against touts will also be a priority, Sharma said. "There will be tough action against touts who are found harassing tourists coming from outside. It will not be tolerated."

Sharma, who is also minister of state for civil aviation, said, "We will also be launching heli-services for tourists like the service available at Vaishno Devi for several tourist places to increase connectivity." According to the plan, tourism ministry will launch the helicopter service in the Buddhist circuit to begin with.