Just one university shows interest to set up maritime school

Panaji: The proposed Goa Institute of Maritime Excellence (GIME) has run into rough waters even before its inception, as only one university has responded to the state’s call for bidders to set up the institute.
“We extended the time for bidders on two occasions, but there was no response. The reason may be that the location of the institute is in a no-development zone,” said a senior government official.
The official said that the government has now to take a decision whether or not to allow the university to go ahead, or to re-tender it. The Captain of Ports (CoP) had recently invited bids from interested national and international educational institutions and developers to redevelop the existing maritime school into a world-class GIME.
The state had decided to start 22 long-term, short-term, mandatory, and optional courses at GIME. A senior official said the concessionaire would have to run six mandatory courses and 16 optional ones.
Some of the mandatory courses in the long-term category are new entrant training course (NETC) and advanced refresher training course (ARTC). In the short-term category, the courses mooted are power boat operator for inland canoes, personal craft operator, high-speed craft operator, crowd management, and passenger safety.
Some of the other courses MICE was supposed to run are maritime MBA courses such as shipping and logistics management, port and shipping management, shipping and finances, etc. The yacht training courses include master of yachts for coastal, open sea, and ocean-going yachts.
Other courses include safety, rescue, fire fighting and first aid, dinghy sailing, kayak, sea bob, and water toy courses, lifeguard courses for professionals, lifeguard courses for swimming pools, beach guard courses for professionals, and adventure courses such as for scuba diving, fly boards, yacht deck crew, cruise and super yacht hospitality. It also mooted courses for fishing trawler skippers and electric boat operators.
We extended the time for bidders on two occasions, but there was no response. The reason may be that the location of the institute is in a no-development zone