PANJIM: In a revelation that could place a question mark on the sustainability of other government projects, Goa Tourism Development Corporation has told the government that it won’t be able to handle the multi-level car parking near Santa Monica on its own.
GTDC has conveyed to the government that it would incur a loss of Rs 4.5 cr annually if it goes ahead with operating the complex by itself. This comes after the State spent Rs 98 cr on its first multi-level parking.
Herald has consistently reported on the bad choice of the multi-level car park site and so also the authorities not strictly implementing the parking.
According to sources in the Finance Department, after spending almost Rs 100 cr GTDC wants to give the multi-level car park to a private bidder to operate and maintain.
In 2016 GTDC floated a tender for a cruise terminal on the current St Monica Jetty which was won by one Krishna Associates, sources said. According to the tender the bidder would also operate the 20,000 sq mt multi-level car park.
“But the bidder would pay only 30 per cent of his income from the multi-level car park to the government and rest would remain with him for his investment of Rs 15 cr in the cruise terminal building,” top officials in the Finance Department told Herald.
This obviously did not go well with Finance Department which rejected the proposal. “The Finance Department had returned the file asking that the lease period of 33 years be reduced to 15 years as the area is a prime city location. How can this be approved? Apart from 33 years there is a provision for extending the lease for another 33 year term,” sources revealed, adding that the file has again come to the department for approval.
When Herald contacted GTDC chairman Nilesh Cabral, he said, “The proposal is there since the last government of Laxmikant Parsekar. The file has been moving since then. Now we have spoken to Tourism Minister Babu Azgaonkar, who has forwarded it to Finance after a discussion with CM Manohar Parrikar,” he disclosed.
Asked about the Rs 4.5 cr loss the GTDC estimates if it runs on its own, Cabral said, currently they are paying Rs 6 lakh to the contractor for operations. “The Rs 4.5 cr figure includes the operation, security and maintenance,” the chairman replied.
The project in Panjim was always in the eye of storm due to the delay in commissioning and so also as there have been no takers for the parking.
The project was awarded to consultant and contractor Lotus Environments, Pune and M VenKata Rao Infra Projects Pvt Ltd respectively and had its launch in 2016.
The construction of the car park fell behind schedule due to a fund crunch, and on more than two occasions the contractor stopped work due to non-payment of his dues, and resumed work only after his bills had been cleared.
