Santa Monica project: GTDC bats for 44-yr PPP contract

Panaji: Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) is keen to award the contract to 'maintain the multi-level car park (MPLC) and the Santa Monica jetty and construct a terminal building' on public-private partnership (PPP) mode to Krishna Associates, even though the finance department had refused its proposal a few months ago.

The finance department had returned the file asking that the lease period of 44 years be reduced to 15 years as the area is a prime city location.

The MCLP was inaugurated in November 2016, but is yet to be commissioned.

GTDC chairman Nilesh Cabral had then alleged that "certain persons" in the finance department were trying to stall the plan by raising unrealistic queries.

In a board meeting last week, GTDC decided to request the government to reconsider the tender and would refloat a separate tender for the MLCP with a 10-year period only if the government doesn't accept the tender in its original form, a source said.

A source said that the bidder had shown willingness to invest a minimum of Rs 15 crore to execute the project but it intimated the GTDC that it will not do so with a reduced tenure.

A GTDC official told the board that "the jetty is deteriorating fast and no one will invest in a project which has a short lifespan".

GTDC is convinced that an investor will not be able to recover its capital within the reduced tender period.