Calangute: With the combination of rough seas, gusty winds and warnings of heavy rains posing danger to tourists, the curtains have come down on the last remaining beach shacks which had been allowed to stay open even after the season ended on May 31.
The Department of Tourism had permitted shack owners in the Calangute-Baga area to keep their shacks open “ till the monsoon sets in” following a request from Goa Shack Owners’ Welfare Society (SOWS) as the rains were delayed and tourists were also thronging to the beach belt.
Shack owners had cited delayed allotment of shacks and low tourists footfalls while seeking the extra days.
The extension granted for the first time by the Department of Tourism had benefitted a handful of shack owners along the coast as only a few shacks had stayed open in the Calangute beach area, as most others had already dismantled their structures in March because of poor business.
The shack season ends on May 31. They shacks have to be removed by June 10.
With barely any foreign charter tourists coming from Russia and Ukraine, two of the biggest source markets for Goa, many locals in the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt who had been allotted shacks in November last year had decided not to pay the licence fee and set up their shacks, while many others had decided not to open their shacks even after paying the licence fee. A few had not opened even after erecting their shacks.
