PANJIM: Despite provisional licences for shacks having been issued early this year, barely 40 percent of the temporary structures have come up along the beaches, and this is thanks to the heavy showers of the past few days.
Rains may have dampened hopes of an early start to the shack business, but shack owners are confident of a good six-month long season as Tourism Department this time has ensured permissions were granted for setting up the shacks ahead of the onset of the tourist season.
“One cannot fight the natural forces but we can certainly pray that we can have good business, because it seems to be an impressive tourist season. Around 40 percent shacks are ready to operate while the remaining are on standstill due to the downpours over the last few days,” Shack Owners Welfare Society president Cruz Cardozo said. This batch of shacks will undergo an inspection by the local authorities before the licenses to begin operations is granted.
Most of the shacks affected are close to the shore wherein heavy winds and rough seas have forced shack operators to wait till the weather is clear. “I have not started the construction although the government issued a provisional licence last month to commence erecting shacks in the allotted areas. Rains have largely hampered my work,” Seby, a shack operator from Benaulim, said.
Nevertheless, he said, some operators, he included, are completing the remaining paper work to begin the operations at the beach shacks, as soon as they are set up.
Another crisis stakeholders are enduring is shortage of labourers, majority of who hail from different states. Rubal Noronha, a traditional shack owner from Arambol claims that Dussehra and Diwali coinciding with the commencement of the tourist season has slowed down work.
“We are facing a huge manpower crunch because the labourers, who are involved in the temporary construction of the shacks, are at their native places for the festivals. They are yet to return. The work will start only after they are back,” he said.
The only breather for the shack operators is that the inflow of international tourists has not picked up pace with only around 600 foreigners having landed in Goa in the last three days. “The shacks can be erected within 10-15 days. It will be operational soon after the final NOC is granted by Tourism Department,” Noronha claimed.
Meanwhile, officials from Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority, Goa Pollution Control Board and Tourism Department, are conducting regular inspections at the coastal areas to ensure compliance of all norms.
