Ahmedabad: In a bid to promote tourism in the
state, the government will soon undertake development of over
a dozen beaches along the 1,600-kilometre coastline, Gujarat
Tourism Minister Jay Narayan Vyas said on Wednesday.
"The move is expected to attract investments both from
domestic and overseas to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore in the
forthcoming Vibrant Gujarat Investor Summit," Vyas claimed.
"The idea is to encash on the naturally available maximum
number of beach weather days (238 out of 365) in Gujarat. The
techno-feasibility study for developing over a dozen beaches
has already been conducted by IL&FS and its under scrutiny of
the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board," he said.
Suvali, near Surat district will be among the first
beaches to be developed by the state, besides Umargaon.
"Suvali alone is pegged to attract investments of Rs
5,000 crore. The model of development is not fixed yet. Some
places shall be developed exclusively by the private parties,
while others will be given a face-lift on Public Private
Partnership model," Vyas said.
"Initially, we shall develop the infrastructure
facilities required for a beach to be lively.. like walk ways,
water sports, landscaping, caravan facility, holiday home, and
hawker zones," Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL),
Managing Director, Anoop Shukla said.
The Corporation is expected to spend anything between Rs
10-12 crore per beach on infrastructure development.
"As part of the infrastructure development, each beach is
expected to have a resort at its nucleus for which we shall be
providing land survey numbers to the developer so that
development could gel with existing infrastructure," Shukla
said.
The newly constituted Gujarat Tourism Project Development
Corporation Limited (GTPDCL), a joint-venture between the
Gujarat government and IL&FS will undertake development of
resorts.
"The management contracts for operating the resorts shall
be awarded to private players on PPP Model," Shukla said.
The state expects sudden influx in traffic flow from
overseas through the sea route as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial
Corridor stretch passing through here is expected to spur the
economic activity manifolds.
"In such a scenario, well developed beaches along the
coastline would be ideal recreational spots in the state,"
Vyas said.
Among the major beaches proposed to be developed are
Suvali (near Surat), Pingleshwar and Mandvi in Kutch, Gopnath,
Sarkeshwar, Tithal, Miyani, Ahmedpur, Nagrol, Umargaon,
besides Poshitra, Shivrajpur, Okhamadi and Bet Dwarka which
are part of the master plan for development of Dwarka.
PTI
