Coastal Maharashtra (Konkan) and Tourism

Posted bypanya219Posted inIndia, TourismTags:, ,

Maharashtra have 716 km. long shoreline. Mighty western Ghats to the east and Arabian Sea on the west with a lot of greenery throughout the region. Famous for Alphanso Mangoes, Nuts, Jackfruit, Supari and what not.

The big shoreline (obviously) offers a lot of beautiful beaches, historical sea forts and esturine forts, and a lot of Pilgrimage Centres. Talking about beach, Most of them are Unknown to the outer world. To the north its Alibaug, the famous party destination and on the southern border its Shiroda beach, a famous destination on the Border of Goa, preferred by most of the foreigners who visit Goa. and are in Search of Crowdless and Calm beaches.

what’s In between them? The shoreline is 716 km long and only 2 famous  beaches to visit?????

Wait… Let’s start from the north. After Alibaug, Kihim & Nagav etc. Beaches the next famous beach is Diveagar. Much cleaner than Alibaug and relatively small croud made it a great destination for the tourists. 50 KMS South lies Harihareshwar, a pilgrimage centre. To the eastern corner lies Fort Raigad. a famous historic spot and the Capital of famous Maratha Dynasty. this is it from Raigad District.

Harnai and Karde Beach near Dapoli, Ratnagiri is te next famous stop. A long series of beaches attract domestic tourists. these beautiful beaches are really beautiful. Scenic beauty. Next famous stop Malgund beach and Ganapatipule. Very famous Pilgrimage centre. I think this is the most visited place in Konkan. Ratnagiri city and then Pavas are the next famous thing. Pavas  again is a pilgrimage centre.

Now in this list of famous Spots we have now reached Sindhudurg District. Sharing its boundaries with GOA (BUS NAM HI KAFI HAI)… Well first Vengurla beach and then Sindhudurg fort and Tarkarli Beach. these are most crowded deatinations in the district. Tarkarli with its white sand and Blue waters attract most tourists. unlike Ratnagiri and Raigad district Sindhudurg is often visited by foreigners mainly beacause of its nearness to Goa.

Statistics:
Total foreign visiters: (2013-14)
Raigad District: 5932
Ratnagiri District: 10221
Sindhudurg District: 20534
Source: MTDC nielsen Reports.

Total Domestic Visitors:
Raigad: 2733260
Ratnagiri: 4518480
Sindhudurg: 3101995
Source: MTDC nielsen Reports

So obviously fireign visitors are more in Sindhudurg due to its nearness to the Goa and Lowest in Raigad.
In all Ratnagiri have highest number of overall tourist visit.

talking about foreign tourists, they use Mumbai as a gateway to India. but after they entered they prefer to visit other parts of the country but not Konkan.

Transportation:
Raigad District have the worst condition of roads compared to Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.
Konkan Railway started in 1990. an engineering marvel with hundreds of tunnels and bridges. this made a huge difference in the fortune of Konkan. the goods transport can now reach to the ports and other corner of country with ease.
With the completion of Coastal Highway, the beaches and other tourist spots become easily accessible.
Marine Drive near Diveagar gives a real scenic view of Arabian Sea. This coastal highway goes parrellel with the shoreline. Travelling hrough the highway is an unforgettable experience. The condition of road is really good.

Unknown Spots:
Well in 2013 me with my colleagues travelled the whole Konkan. It totally changed my perception about Konkan. with a lot of beaches which are not visited by any tourists but are beautiful and possess great capacity for the tourism activities. One of them are Varawade beach in Ratnagiri District. Lies on Costal highway near Malgund. Aare ware beach also lies in the nearby area. which have the same characteristics.

There are many places like Varawade beach which can be used for tourism practises. this will help to release the pressur on the famous places of the region. the scattered tourism practises will get widespread and as the tourism practices will increase the capacity of accomodating more tourists in the region will also increase. More n more locals will get a source of income.

It is important to decentralization of tourists and attracting them toward other unknown tourist destinations. the famous tourist deatinations suffer a lot of pressure in the peak season. thia will ease out some pressure on them.

This blog gives account of some basic things about Konkan. There are a lot things which I have not mentioned in this blog. The beauty of this region just cannot be expressed in some words. Next time I willl come up with more detailed anlysis and some new photographs.

image
Konkan Railway: Scenic Beauty…
image
The hidden treasure: Varawade Beach…
image
Harihareshwar…
image
Sunset at Velaneshwar Beach…
A bridge on Coastal Highway..
A bridge on Coastal Highway..

links:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkan_Railway

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konkan

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/india/maharashtra/konkan-coast

http://www.konkanyatra.com

http://www.konkanonline.com

11 thoughts on “Coastal Maharashtra (Konkan) and Tourism”

      1. I wonder if I may ask you a question? I used an Indian spacecraft in a book I wrote – I set the craft’s designers in Pune. One of the scientists I named Punarnava Moorthi, nicknamed Nava. (In the US, Indians often find Americans have trouble pronouncing their names properly and so adopt shortened versions.) I had to use the Internet as a source for these elements – do they sound believable to you? Someone once told me Nava sounds more like a man’s name than a woman’s. Thanks so much 🙂

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    1. Well India will contribute heavily in the field of space exploration for sure. currently many ambitious Projects going on in Indian Space Research Organization. Which are working nicely and also producing Results. Mangalyaan and Chandrayan are some of the examples. So lets wait n watch.

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