TEAM HERALD
PONDA: With a large number of temples located all across the taluka, Ponda is often considered the temple town of Goa. The taluka attracts thousands of devotees and tourists, but they are often left disappointed due to poor facilities around these sites.
Whether it is a lack of accommodation, insufficient parking space or even poor toilet facilities, tourists have often found themselves struggling to avail of these facilities around prominent temple sites in Ponda taluka.
Among the worst affected sites are at Mangueshi in Veling-Priol and Kavlem, where the tourist complexes have been virtually abandoned and are gathering dust.
The tourist complex at Kavlem was a project of the tourism department and it ran successfully for a few years. However, poor management and lack of maintenance led to the downfall of this project and it is now abandoned.
“Kavlem is a famous tourist spot due to the popular Shantadurga temple in the village. However, tourists visiting the site face great hardship on account of lack of parking, toilets and accommodation facilities,” said Kavlem Sarpanch Rajesh Kavlekar.
He informed that the tourist complex at Kavlem was constructed in 1996 and it included a restaurant, eight-bedded dormitories and toilets.
“The restaurant has been closed since the past two years while the dormitories which were set up in 1996 were in use for only three years. Since then, the dormitories have not been used and same is the case with the toilets in the complex,” said Kavlekar. “This project was built by tourism department with a view to generate income for the government, but it has failed to achieve its target. If the tourism department cannot run the complex, it should be handed over to the local panchayat, so that the village can generate some revenue.”
“Regarding the parking problems near the Shantadurga temple, the unused land acquired by tourism department should be handed over to the panchayat so that we can have better parking facilities there,” Kavlekar added.
Kavlekar admitted that the panchayat had been unable to construct toilets at the site in the absence of an NOC from the temple committee.
“The temple committee owns the surrounding land, but they were reluctant to give us an NOC to construct toilets for the tourists,” said Kavlekar.
“The panchayat has sent frequent reminders to the tourism department, but they have failed to revive its abandoned tourist complex,” he added. Similar is the case at Mangueshi, where the tourist complex has also been neglected.
“The tourism department had constructed the tourist complex at Mangueshi in 1996, but the accommodation and restaurant facilities have been abandoned since the last three years,” said Veling-Priol Sarpanch Damodar Naik.
Naik, however, said there is some hope in sight as the tourism department has plans to construct a new complex at the site.
“The tourism department will construct a Rs 11 crore tourist complex, which will consist of a gallery cum exhibition depicting the history of Mangeshim temple and the village, an auditorium to accommodate 600 people, a well-equipped restaurant, a lodging and boarding complex with 20 double bedrooms, four dormitories, 63 shops and some stalls to exhibit local handicrafts,” said Naik.
