State Tourism Minister Jayakumar Rawal on Wednesday proposed to set up a Japanese village near the Ajanta and Ellora caves to attract more tourists from Japan, which has been funding the restoration of the World Heritage frescoes near Aurangabad.
Mr. Rawal made the suggestion to a four-member delegation from Wakayama Prefectural Government (WPG), Japan which visited Mantralaya and met the tourism officials to discuss the MoU signed between WPFG and Maharashtra in October 2013. As part of the MoU, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been funding the Phase-III of development of Ajanta-Ellora frescoes. The MoU envisages enhancing mutual economic growth, promotion of agro and food processing between local enterprises through the existing framework established between the two. Principal Secretary, Tourism, Valsa Nair Singh thanked the WPG for helping promote Maharashtra tourism in Japan by allocating office space for the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in Tokyo.
