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Orissa to float global tender for park project
Dilip Bisoi
BHUBANESWAR, January 13: The Orissa government will soon float a global tender inviting private companies to develop a beach-based tourism park near Puri as briefly reported yesterday. "The draft for the bidding is ready and we may go for the tender any time," a senior official of the state government told The Financial Express. The park will be located at Sipasarubali, about 7 km south of Puri on the seacoast.It will have star category hotels, accomodation for budget tourists, camping sites and other tourism-related facilities like a golf course, arrangement for water sports and an airport which can accommodate wide-bodied jets. The state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation will develop the park in collaboration with the private company which will be selected through the process of bidding. While IDCO will provide the land, the private partner will develop the infrastructure for the park. The state tourism department and the Union tourism ministry will provide technological
support to the project and finalise the conceptual plan for the theme park. The co-promoter will also prepare the detailed project report (DPR), a senior IDCO official said. According to him, IDCO is facing problems acquiring 3300 acres for the park. "We will overcome the hurdles very soon," he said, adding the acquisition will be over by the time a private partner has been selected. Several influential people have grabbed land in Sipasarubali and the government is in a fix. If it cancels the land lease, then the aggrieved parties would go to court and the litigation would take up at least three years. On the other hand, if it compensates them for the land, then it will set a bad precedent and anyone who has fraudulently cornered land in the state would demand compensation. However, a way out of the problem has been found. "We will acquire the land and deposit the compensation amount in the court," an IDCO official said. The compensation would be disbursed if the court awards the case in favour of the
landowners, he added.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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