Digha (West Bengal), Jan 13 (IANS) In a bid to fulfil her election promise of converting this sea resort in East Midnapore district into an international tourist destination on par with Goa, West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee Friday kicked off a four-day Digha beach festival.

The sea beaches in and around the Digha area, including the popular Mandarmoni, have been decked up with lights and placards. Various stalls have come up along the stretch offering lip-smacking sea food.

Digha is 174 km from Kolkata.

In order to draw more tourists to the area, arrangements for water sports have been made with two expert water sports players roped in from Goa for the purpose.

“Digha and Mandarmoni can become international tourist spots. We have shortage of funds. But with that small fund also we can do something beautifully. Mandarmoni is the only beach in India where you can ride a car on the beach. I will make this place an international tourist spot. A day will come when people will prefer Mandarmoni over Goa as tourist destination,” said Banerjee while inaugurating the Digha Beach Festival 2012.

The four-day festival, being held from Jan 13 to 16, is being organised by the tourism and youth affairs ministries and the Digha Sankarpur Development Authority.

Tourists can enjoy water sports, adventure sports and sea activities at Digha beach. A place called Tajpur near Digha is being developed as a major adventure-tourism spot offering a host of sports activities like water-skiing, para-sailing, water zorbing, snorkelling etc.

A seafood festival has also been arranged where tourists can select their favourite sea fish such as Hilsa, Pomphret, Betki and Prawn that would be prepared in front of them and served piping hot.

Various kinds of beach sports such as beach cricket, beach volleyball, kabaddi and all-terrain bike competitions would also be organised on the 23-km stretch of hard beach along Digha and Mandarmoni.