Guwahati: Tourism in Assam suffered an estimated loss of Rs 1,000 crore due to violent protests against the amended Citizenship Act, a top official said on Tuesday.
The sector has been badly hit in December and will be in January too, Assam Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Jayanta Malla Baruah told a press conference here.
Along with domestic tourists, their flow from abroad too took a hit after a number of countries issued travel advisories due to the ongoing protests, Baruah said.
"The peak season of tourism is from December to March.
Due to violence during the protests, the sector suffered badly. We estimate that the loss in December and January will be Rs 500 crore each," he said.
"Because of the impact on the peak season, we expect 30 per cent fall in tourist footfall in the overall 2019-20 financial year. We hope to slightly recover from this situation in February," he added.
NFR loses Rs 100 crore
The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR), which operates in the northeast and in some parts of Bihar and West Bengal, has incurred over Rs 100 crore losses due to violent protests against the CAA.
Subhanan Chanda, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the Northeast Frontier Railways, on Tuesday said between December 9 and December 30, the losses incurred by the NFR crossed Rs 100 crore.
"The losses incurred in originating earnings due to loss in passenger earnings was about Rs 30.13 crore, the loss in freight earnings about Rs 63.42 crore, while the loss in parcel earnings about Rs 5.05 crore," Chanda said.
He said during December 9-30, about 38.86 lakh passengers could not avail the NFR services due to cancellation of trains and violent protests.
The CPRO said while NFR immediately swung into action to restore train services after improvement in the law and order by introducing manual train operations in some affected areas, the damages were being repaired.
The NFR had to cancel all West Bengal-bound trains (towards Eastern Railway) for many days due to the violent anti-CAA protests at various stations in the state.
The agitators burnt several trains and damaged properties in West Bengal during the agitation.
The CAA provides for Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh with a cut-off date of December 31, 2014.
