At the Chhattisgarh Investment Summit today, Rajat Kumar, IAS, Secretary, Department of Commerce & Industries, made a compelling pitch to the hospitality and tourism industry, asserting that Chhattisgarh now offers the most extensive incentive framework in the country for stand-alone tourism projects. The benefits cover hotels, resorts, convention centres, wellness retreats, adventure tourism facilities, water sports, amusement parks and museums.
Calling tourism a “service industry with industrial status,” Kumar said the state’s industrial and tourism policies have been synchronised to provide exceptional financial support for investors looking to develop large-scale tourism infrastructure.
Highlighting the magnitude of subsidies available, the Secretary presented sample calculations showing that capital-heavy projects can recover a substantial portion of their investments. A ₹400-crore hotel project spread over five acres, generating 100 to 750 jobs, could receive nearly ₹37 crore as subsidy, he said. A ₹75-crore resort project may be eligible for around ₹24 crore in fixed-capital subsidy. Kumar noted that no other state currently offers an incentive structure of this scale and integration across all categories of tourism development.
He emphasised that by granting tourism the status of an industrial service sector, Chhattisgarh is positioning itself to attract major hospitality brands, adventure-tourism operators, convention developers and wellness enterprises. “If you bring a stand-alone tourism project—hotel, convention centre, adventure activity or museum—no other state matches the benefits Chhattisgarh is offering today,” he said.
For hotel chains, resort developers, MICE planners and experiential tourism companies, the message from the state’s top industrial authority was clear: Chhattisgarh is positioning itself as a high-incentive, low-competition frontier market. Officials reiterated that the state aims to emerge as India’s next major tourism development zone.
