The Indur Utsav 2001, was planned with the specific purpose of opening up Nizamabad district and its surrounding area for local tourists as well as tourists from other parts of the state..
Nizamabad district is a beautiful district with a lot of greenery, gardens, forests and huge water bodies like Nizamsagar, Sriramsagar, Pocharam, Asoksagar and Alisagar. There are many places of socio-religious importance in the district. The towns of Nizamabad and Bodhan are of historical importance. District Administration has initiated steps to promote Tourism-Eco-tourism/ Religious tourism/Adventure tourism - in a big way.
The district administration has identified 36 locations in the district to be developed as tourism spots. Local conducted tours to some of these destinations have been started on October 2nd, 2001. With the opening of places for tourism, there would be more and more investment coming in, resulting in boosting up of the economy and generation of many employment avenues for the local people. The idea is to develop of Nizamabad as “a great getaway destination”. As a first step, it was thought to showcase various arts, cultural heritage and food items of the district to the public in a festival. Nizamabad is en route Basar, which attracts lot of pilgrims to Gyana Saraswathi Temple, during puja holidays. Hence the festival “Indur Utsav 2001”, was proposed to be held during this period.
“Indur Utsav-2001” is a package of arts, crafts, cultural, film, sports and food festival rolled-into-one. The festival was conducted from 24th October, to 28th October, 2001, in Nizamabad town involving all sections of people. Multifarious activities were taken up on simultaneously in various venues of the town catering to the different tastes of the people. “Indur Utsav-2001” was conducted at Collectorate ground, District Police Parade Ground,Bal Bhavan premises, Vijaya and Devi theatres, Khaleelwadi ground, President function hall and Alisagar garden.
The Collectorate ground was the main venue, where cultural programs were performed by some leading artists of the state/country every evening from 5.30 pm onwards during the festival. Among the programs during the festival, Srinivasa Kalyanam ballet by Padmasri Shobha Naidu and Party, Andhra Natyam and Perini Shiva Thandavam by Sri Nataraja Rama Krishna, Carnatic Vocal Concert by Hyderabad Sisters were of special importance. There was Sitar-Violin-Jugalbandi, Mohiniyuttam, Kuchipudi, Magic show, Mimicry, Gazals, Quwali and Mushaira during the festival. For the food festival, the traditional food items of Andhra, Telangana, Gujrathi, Marwadi, Rajasthani were available to the people. The Collectorate ground was also the venue for the sports events like Volley Ball etc. during the festival in the evenings.
The inauguration of the festival was done by the Honourable Home Minister on 24th October, 2001 in the presence of five other ministers- ministers for culture, health, major irrigation, panchayati raj and tourism and all MLAs and MPs from the district. The closing ceremony was presided over by the Honourable Governor of Andhra Pradesh, on 28th, October, 2001 at the Collectorate grounds.
In the Police Parade Grounds, there were cultural programs by local artists apart from the traditional programmes like Pulli veshalu, Dappulu, Chindu Bagwatham.
There was the exhibition of Handicrafts, Handloom and Electronic items in this ground. DWACRA products, Kondapally toys, Nirmal toys, Etikoppaka, Kalahasti Kalankari, etc. were also be exhibited.
In Bal Bhavan premises, activities for young children like competition for the local school children, performance of school students etc were conducted.
In Khaleelwadi Ground on Dussera day i.e. on 26-10-2001, “Ravan dahan” was performed in a big way. Mushiras, Quwali performance were done at President Plaza Function Hall, Bodhan road.
Film festival was conducted in Devi and Vijaya theatres. Every day, morning shows of one Telugu and one Hindi movie were taken up. Films were procured with the help of the A.P. Film Development Corporation.
Water sports were conducted at Alisagar during the period of the festival. There were Speed Boats, Sail Boats, Kayaks, and water skis on display.
A heritage museum was started on October,24th, show casing over 50 sculptures, over 100 bronzes, arms and weapons and other historic relics pertaining to Nizamabad.
As a part of festival, beatification of town has been taken with the construction of new road islands at all major junctions, road dividers on all the main roads, road dividers with stone masonry and beautiful vegetative topping and central lights for about 2 kilometers from Phulong to DWCRA Bazar. Five new fountains were started on 24th October, 2001. All major buildings in the town were illuminated. Black topping was done on major roads. These were completed with an estimated cost of over Rs. 40 lakhs, with the active participation and co-operation of the citizens of Nizamabad town.
There was overwhelming response from the people. This was a pioneering event in the tourism history of the state. The success of this festival has prompted many other districts to take up similar festivals.
“Indur Utsav 2001” festival was indeed a launching pad for the development of the tourism in the district.
( G.ASOK KUMAR, IAS )
Collector & Chairman, DTPC, Nizamabad
