Tourism director W Ibohal on Tuesday announced that the overall footfall of tourists at the 4th edition of the Shirui Lily Festival 2022 is expected to reach as high as over five lakh.
The four days Shirui Lily Festival 2022 (from May 25-28) is also the state’s second-largest tourism event after the Sangai festival.
This 4-days gala event will be organized by the Department of Tourism, Government of Manipur with Governor – Shri La Ganesan inaugurating the opening ceremony at Shirui village.
Speaking to the media at his office, he said that considering a large number of people likely to turn up at different venues, the department by tying up with the Transport department in arranging buses to ferry festival-goers at different venues of the festival to mitigate traffic congestion.
Apart from daily bus service for travelling to and from Ukhrul being made available at the ISBT complex, he said that another bus has been arranged at Ukhrul district headquarters to transport festival visitors to Shirui village. Besides, a mini-bus has been arranged to ferry festival-goers to the event venue after their vehicles are being made to park at Shirui village ground, he added.
The tourism director also clarified that the festival is a state-level one and a tender was floated for organising the Miss Shirui Lily, 2022 contest. There should be no misunderstanding or conflict in this regard, he added.
He further said that this year’s theme is ‘one flower, one festival’ to highlight the importance of the protection and conservation of the endangered Shirui Lily.
Ibohal appealed to the festival-goers to be responsible and not pluck or trample the lilies.
He also sought cooperation of the people in doing justice to the purpose of the festival and urged the visitors to use the waste bins and public urinals being set up instead of discarding waste carelessly and openly urinating.
He maintained that besides adventure sports and rock music, display of mosaics of Manipur’s culture, handloom and handicrafts among others will be the features of the festival.
He said that the festival is providing opportunities for entrepreneurs, and exuded confidence that those operating hotels and accommodation units, various services such as cabs, and many others will be greatly benefitted by the festival.