In a bid to promote tourism in Gujarat, the government will soon undertake development of over a dozen beaches along its 1,600 kilometre coastline, State Tourism Minister Jay Narayan Vyas said here today.
“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.
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Suvali, near Surat district will be amongst 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 facelift 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,” Toursim Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) Managing Director Anoop Shukla said.
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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.