The latest big buck project of the government is the Rs 100 crore ropeway project from Reis Magos to Panjim in the name of “providing new tourist attractions to people and unlocking the commercial value of Goa’s tourism potential. It will transform the State into a world class destination for adventure seeking tourists and boost additional tourism activities in the State”.
The government announced that the contract has been given to one Menus Adventures Pvt Ltd, Kashmir consortium with one Doppelmayr Seilbahnen GmbH, Austria (Technology Provider).The logic is that since this is a PPP project on a “no cost to exchequer basis”, the cost of the project and who the private party is does not matter as long as they deliver. However questions can be raised on whether due diligence has been done in choosing the party to execute it, the details of the other bidders and the process applied to qualify and shortlist and select the final party. Therefore like many other projects, it must be asked if the ropeway project passes the transparency test and the short answer to this is that it may not.
The “bidder” ,which in this case appears to be the finally selected party, will do a techno feasibility study. But isn’t there a need for an Environment Impact study or assessment and the fallout the project will have, if any, on the ecology.
More importantly, the benefits of this project to tourism haven’t really been mapped. A ride from Reis Magos to Panjim, will at best offer a view of the Mandovi from a height higher than that of the cruise boat. It will be of a distance of 1.5 kms. It’s hard to fathom why Rs 100 crores is needed for this. Yet again the cost benefit needs to be explained.
It is evident that the government, at the fag end of its term is falling back on white elephants in the garb of PPP projects which will cost the private player heavily. But no private players will invest unless there are tangible takeaways. This is a general observation and not specific to this project.
There is therefore a need to go back to the drawing board and see if Goa is running its tourism according to a plan or it thinks of projects and then draws policy to suit those projects.
The written reply in the Assembly that the government will focus on “innovative yoga tours, scuba diving, hop-on-hop-off buses and amphibious vehicles” are too general and wide in scope.
Moreover, most of these (except the hop-on-hop-off buses) are taken care of by smaller private players who are doing extremely well, despite the government. Goa has a very good scuba tours and companies and known to be one of the world’s top draws for yoga tourism.
The need to look within, slow down and rethink along the lines of the sustainable, eco-friendly tourism model has never been greater.
A ropeway is therefore needed to sustainable tourism than from Reis Magos to Panjim.
