The Orissa government will soon float tenders to select a master developer for its ambitious beach resort project, Samuka. The project will be developed in the PPP (public-private-partnership) model.
“The empowered committee headed by chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy has accorded its approval to the bid documents and we are going to float tenders soon”, state tourism director Rabi Narayan Nanda told FE . According to him, big players in the infrastructure development sector like GMR and DLF are inquiring about the project.
The master developer will develop the required infrastructure for the project with facilities for an auditorium having sitting capacity for 1500 people, golf course, airstrips, and sites for hotels. The developer will generate revenue by selling or renting out the properties.
The state government, through its arm Orissa Tourism Development Corp (OTDC), is proposing to develop a trourism resort of international standard on 1000 acres near Sipasarubali, about 10 km south of Puri city. The Rs 171-crore project is set to be completed by 2010.
The OTDC, meanwhile, has shortlisted 11 hotel companies for setting up four five-star hotels on the site. The shortlisted companies will bid for the sites–one 40-acre plot and three 20-acre plots–in the Samuka project.
“The bid documents will be given to the shortlisted companies soon”, said Nanda. According to him, the highest four bidders would be picked up for the hotel projects.
Internationally reputed hotel companies like the ITC, Taj group, Hilton, Park Hotel, Ananda Spa are among the shortlisted ones.
Nanda said the modalities for transfer of land to the OTDC has been worked out and the process is expected to be over by the month-end. State-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp, which had acquired the land, was facing procedural problems in transferring the same to the OTDC.
