PORVORIM: Tourism development seems to be the least of priorities of Goa Tourism Development Corporation as its track record revealed in a Goa Assembly LAQ asked by Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar to Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar. The answer revealed that while there were a substantial amount of investments in infrastructure especially in Tourism Jetty, Multilevel car Parking, Baga Beach Land Development but there was a significant amount of spending by GTDC in works that are normally undertaken by Electricity, Public Works and even Panchayat Departments.
Two years later, Amphibious bus fails to float
Two years after it was first launched, the GTDC’s ambitious amphibious vehicle service appears to have hit the metaphorical iceberg of red-tape. The services which was was expected to boost tourism potential in the State apart from creating employment opportunities to locals , was flagged off in October 2016 was supposed to commence operations in November after obtaining all the permissions.
However, in an LAQ by MLA Antonio Fernandes, it was revealed that the company M/s. Amphibious Tours Private Limited, was unable to obtain permissions from the Captain of Ports, RTO and MORTH and has backed out of the project. GTDC thus claimed the performance deposit of Rs 10,00,000 which was given by the company.
Interestingly, the company was selected after getting just two bids. According to the General Financial Rules, at least three bids are required for a tender. Further, GTDC claims that they had not incurred any expenditure on the amphibian bus.
M/s. Amphibious Tours Private Limited, a company registered in Goa, was incorporated in March 2015 and had no prior expience in operating such services. However, the company had joined hands with a local vehicle manufacturing company in February 2015 to manufacture amphibious vehicles.
Rs 4 crores in 2014 yet no IHM
The GTDC had received a total sum of Rs 4 Crore in 2014-15 in order to construct the proposed State Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology and has spend nearly Rs 7.91 Crore on the project, according to an LAQ . However, nearly 4 years later, the project is still under construction.
40000 sq meters of land near Goa engineering college was handed over to GTDC. The foundation stone for Phase 1 of the institute was laid in August 2014 and was estimated at around Rs 23 Crores. The project was slated to be completed by around 2015-16.
GTDC High Cost of High Mast
Since 2014, GTDC has undertaken 38 works of high masts and incurred a total expenditure of Rs 5,12 Crores. GTDC spent on high masts at KTC Margao, Porvorim, Thane-Sattari, Assonora and various other places. The highest expenditure incurred was around Rs 1,89 Crores on 32 LED lamps for the high masts.
GTDC spend Rs 3.64 Crores on underground 11kv cabling works at Amrekarnath temple and a whopping Rs 4.73 Crores in GTDC Chairman’s Nilesh Cabral’s home constituency of Curchorem.
GTDC spent Rs 21 crores in Curchorem Constituency
Curchorem constituency has been fortunate to have an MLA who is also the Chairman of GTDC. GTDC spend a total of Rs 21,00,60,780 since 2015-16. Most of the funds have been utilised for developing roads in Curchorim and Tilamol. In contrast, GTDC has spent 26 lakhs in neighbouring Quepem and Rs 3.67 lakhs in Sanguem.
GTDC pays for House keeping at Paryatan Bhavan
Since 2015-16, GTDC has paid Rs 1.101 Crore for housekeeping at Paryatan Bhavan, the head quarters of Department of Goa Tourism. While in 2015-16, GTDC paid around 5.8 lakh for the service, in 2017-18 GTDC spent a little over Rs 50 lakhs for house keeping at Paryatan Bhavan,
However, GTDC’s expenditure on Paryatan Bhavan doesn’t end there. GTDC also incurred for Paryatan Bhavan an annual maintainance cost (AMC) of Rs 6.65 lakh on Passenger lifts, Rs 3.18 lakh on diesel generator, Rs 1.67 lakh on VCB ASB, Rs 2.37 lakh on a 500 KVA transformer, Rs 4 lakh on “Paryatan Bhavan Modular” and Rs 18.4 lakh on “Paryatan Bhavan recreation”.
GTDC Utilisation of Funds Panchayat
In 2015-16, GTDC received Rs 2,87,72,587 for developing tourism in Panchayats. The funds were spent in 7 Panchayats namely, Siolim, Anjuna, Pilerne, Sangolda, Verla and Assolda. The highest amount spent was Rs 1.49 Crores in Pilerne Panchayat. The lone village from South Goa which benefited from the funds was Assolda in Curchorem constituency where Rs 2.9 lakhs were spend on a the panchayat football ground.
Similarly, the funds from Swadesh Darshan-1,a central funded scheme was spent mostly in North Goa District such as development of Morjim beach, Anjuna beach, Ashwen beach parking Aguada fort etc. A total of Rs 54,98,95,000 was spent since 2016-17 till now.
However, GTDC had received nearly Rs 80 Crores during that period. Under Swadesh Darshan-2, Rs 19.87 Crores were recived by GTDC in 2017-18 but only around 1 Crores has been spent on “Architectural fees”.
