TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar along with Goa Tourism Development Corporation chairman Nilesh Cabral and others inspected the beach stretch from Mobor to Colva to take stock of the situation.
The team primarily came to see beach cleaning, life guarding and beach patrol work being undertaken by various agencies.
The tourism minister expressed satisfaction over the cleaning of tar balls from the beaches, while the GTDC Chairman said all the beaches will get important facilities for tourists.
“Beach cleaning is now done manually as some of the NGOs have objected to the use of machinery to protect the life beneath the sand. We have decided to organise a demonstration especially for the NGOs to prove that the machinery won’t disturb the biodiversity of the beaches,” Parulekar said.
He added that tourism department will propose a dedicated sewerage line for coastal Salcete.
Explaining why tourism development cannot benefit from corporate social responsibility funding, Cabral said, “The star hotels and resorts from Goa are chains of various groups all over the world. They don’t fit in the prescribed turnover limit for CSR. That’s the reason we get little help from them for tourism development in Goa. We have set targets to erect toilets, changing rooms, shower rooms and locker rooms on the South Goa beach stretch and the works will be tendered soon.”
