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Neena Haridas in New Delhi

A brawl with the 'receptionists', frisking by the securitymen, a dirty flight of stairs. You are at the Ministry of Tourism, the place where bureaucrats sit in their plush air-conditioned rooms and beckon tourists to 'experience' India. And this year, the 'Visit India' placard comes with an added promise -- a millennium treat of sorts from the gods.

On sale are the first sunrays of the new millennium. According to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the first sun rays of the new millennium will fall on a nondescript island called Katchal, near the Camp Bell Bay, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Though Japan will witness the dawn before Greenwich Mean Time, its time zone is not taken into consideration because it falls beyond GMT which is the official time-keeper of the world. It is this quirk in the time machine that has conferred on India this unique phenomenon.

Sensing the business opportunity, the tourism and hospitality industry in India is now rushing full steam ahead to exploit the phenomenon. For they feel they can now offer the exotica-seeking tourists more than the cliched Taj Mahal, ubiquitous lepers and Palace on Wheels.

But the Ministry of Tourism is on a go-slow mode. Says director-general of Indian Tourism Development Corporation, Ashok Pradhan, "The phenomenon is a good opportunity but we don't want to invite the entire world to the island and disturb the 5000-odd tribal population here. Yes, our tourism packages this year are millennium-oriented and the sunrays event is our USP. But we don't want to overdo it because inviting too many people could mean inviting new germs, diseases and the other telltale signs of progress such as plastic and litter."

Hence, the tourism ministry has allowed only seven mid-sized ships to anchor ''near'' Katchal so that tourists can watch the sun rays from a distance. So all those tourists who are dreaming of a fresh sun bath could be in a for a rude shock. The tickets to the mega-event, according to travel industry sources, would be sold at a premium. Most of the travel and tourism agencies are making a bid to block tickets on these ships. However, an official notification on the programme will be issued only later this week.

Meanwhile, defence ministry officials revealed that for security reasons, the Indian Navy has requested the prevention of any move by the tourism ministry to convert the event into a major festival and attract foreign tourists. The waters around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have of late become a major route for arms and drug trafficking and the Indian Navy has been expressing grave concern in this regard. The Navy feels that an influx of foreign tourists could lead to security problems.

However, Pradhan says the ministry's decision to underplay the event has nothing to do with the Navy's apprehensions, but it is merely a decision to avoid ecological imbalances on the island.

Pradhan says besides Katchal, the department has charted out a range of tourist attractions for the millennium special in other parts of the country as well. For instance, major festivals are being planned in Goa, Rajasthan, Orissa, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

Anticipating good response to these programmes, tourism secretary M P Bezbaruah earlier this week said the tourism sector is expected to log an eight percent growth during this season. He said the elections and the Kargil conflict had taken a toll on tourist traffic, with the first half of 1999-2000 witnessing a growth of only 6 percent. The ministry is expecting a 55 percent occupancy in its properties during this season compared to last year's 35 percent. And the officials say, this growth will come from the millennium packages that are being offered by the state governments.

Bezbaruah said the small players were the key to the development of the tourism sector and related areas such as the hotel industry. Echoing his sentiments, Pradhan added that the domestic tourists, whose number is currently pegged at 168 million, will be responsible for a major part of the growth in the sector. Among the foreign tourists, Pradhan says the highest number will come from the European countries, the United Kingdom and the United States. "But what we are looking forward to is the domestic traveller who is increasingly becoming interested in his own country's resources."

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