Calcutta, July 21: The tourism department will not make any promotional investment, like purchasing and operating tourist buses or building tourist lodges, in the days ahead.

Instead, it will concentrate on creation of infrastructure like link roads, street lighting, installation of power sub-stations and water treatment plants to attract investors.

As the department marks a change in policy, a tourism advisory committee has been formed under chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

“I have requested the chief minister for a date for the first meeting of the committee”, said tourism minister Dinesh Dakua, who will be the acting chairman.

The committee will guide the department in its role as provider of basic infrastructure and in maintaining law and order in tourist spots.

Law and order is a concern for Dakua. He regretted that hooligans have picked tourist hubs like Digha or the Sudder Street area in Calcutta — the favourite haunt of backpackers — as soft targets.

He rued that in some areas when the government acquires land and hands it to private entrepreneurs, local toughs scare them away with extortion threats.

And unfortunately, some hooligans were found to have been patronised by local political leaders, Dakua said.

The role of the tourism department and the minister in the days ahead would be to oversee and ensure co-ordination among different departments for the growth of tourism.

For example, he said, there is chronic shortage of water in Darjeeling — the state’s premier hill resort — and his department cannot solve the problem. The public health engineering department is the one that can redress it.

Earlier, he told Assembly that of the 11 tourism projects proposed by the state, the Centre has approved seven.

Delhi has given Rs 6 crore for development of the riverfront at Sarada Math in Dakshineswar, face-lift for a temple in Bishnupur, creation of village infrastructure at Santiniketan, and development of a park in Siliguri and a Vivekananda tourism circuit centring on Dakshineswar and Belur Math.

Moreover, the Centre has granted Rs 8 crore for developing roads and a ropeway between Digha and Shankarpur.

Basil International, a company based in Maharashtra, has showed interest in investing in Digha and Siliguri.

The minister added that his department has invited concepts for the development of the Bakreswer hot springs into a popular destination.