Demarcation ready, beach shacks to be up next week

PANAJI: The tourism department has completed the demarcation of 340-odd shacks, paving the way for an early set-up this season. An official said that by next week allottees will be able to erect shacks in the allotted spaces.
Conventionally, October marks the beginning of the peak tourist season but Goa has slowly turned into a 365-day destination. A tourism department official said permissions have not issued to few allottees as their cases are pending in court. Usually, the tourism department allows 350-355 beach shacks every season.

The official said shacks will be able to start operations once inspections of the shacks are carried out; those who begin operations before that will be considered illegal.

The inspections ensure that the allottee has set up his shack within the area allotted to him, and has not encroached on the beach. He said there is a tendency among operators to erect shacks erected much beyond the area demarcated by the tourism department.

John Lobo, secretary of the Goa Shack Owners Welfare society (SOWS) said most shacks will be up in a week. “We are hoping for a good season though charter numbers may drop,” he said, adding that shacks at the Calangute main beach, as well Baga do not stand to lose even if there are few international tourists.

“Shacks in Candolim, or the far-end of Calangute beach will lose business if there are fewer foreign tourists. Other beaches get a lot of domestic tourists,” he said.

This year, Lobo expects the government to have put practices in place to monitor illegal vendors and beggars, who are not allowed on beaches. A north Goa shack operator said, “We have to take all the necessary permissions, without which we can’t operate but vendors just walk on the beaches and sell goods and nobody stops them.”

Shack operators have grown tired of them and a series of complaints have made no impact. “They are eating into our business slowly. I don’t see anybody stopping them,” a shack operator said.

Tourism minister Manohar Azgaonkar has repeatedly said that he has given instructions to authorities to keep vendors at bay so that they don’t harass tourists.