PUNE: Calling Mahabaleshwar a home for strawberry, honey and other forest produce, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday asked the officials from the agriculture department to submit a proposal to start a research centre to ensure the cultivation of strawberry in the State as well as the country. 

He was speaking during a meeting at Raj Bhavan to discuss the development of tourism in Mahabaleshwar.

The Chief Minister said that with best research, strawberry production as well as quality would increase and it is important to give stress on strawberry cultivation in other parts of the State.

Uddhav Thackeray further mentioned that since Mahabaleshwar is a popular tourist destination and the number of tourists is huge, for mitigating the problem of huge number of vehicles, big parking lots outside Mahabaleshwar should be set up and use of electric vehicles needs to be explored.

He also expressed that the need to develop tourism places in and around Mahabaleshwar and directed the tourism department officials for the same. He told them that Mantralaya would sanction such proposals in a time-bound manner.

Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray said that Mahabaleshwar gets tourists not only from Maharashtra but from all over the country and from abroad as well and suggested that it would be helpful if the multilingual police force is deployed at this place.

Minister for Industries & Mining Subhash Desai, Gadchiroli collector Shekhar Singh, Kolhapur range Chief Conservator Dr Ben Clement, SP Tejashree Satpute, MTDC Managing Director Abhimanyu Kale were present for the meeting.