Panaji: The government on Friday informed the state legislative assembly that M/s Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd has been appointed as the operations and maintenance operator for Fort Aguada to look after day-to-day maintenance of the premises.
Minister for Tourism Manohar Ajgaonkar in a written reply to the House stated that there is however no proposal to handover Fort Aguada to anyone as the same is under the control and management of the Archaeological Survey of India.
“The erstwhile Aguada jail premises, located in the lower portion of the fort, which was functioning as central jail has been transferred to Goa Tourism Development Corporation in the year 2016, pursuant to a decision taken by the government, after the existing jail was shifted to new complex at Colvale,” the written reply added, pointing out, “The premises, which was lying in a state of neglect, has now been renovated by availing financial assistance from Union Ministry of Tourism, under Swadesh Darshan scheme and will be fully managed by GTDC, so as to showcase Goa’s glorious liberation struggle to the visiting Indian and foreign tourists, on the lines of cellular jail, at Andamans.”
It was also informed that as per the Swadesh Darshan scheme guidelines, the GTDC had to appoint an operations and maintenance operator to look after day-to-day maintenance of the premises, for providing housekeeping services, maintaining cleanliness of the premises, providing security, amenities like cafeteria, entry of visitors, overall facility management, technical maintenance, and operations of sound and light show, so that the premises is maintained to world class standards.”
The Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai later told the pressmen that the government has spent a huge sum of Rs 25 crore on renovating the heritage monument, and has now handed it over to M/s Drishti, in turn annually receiving only rupees one crore from the agency.
“This is a faulty business model as the amount spent by the government for renovating Fort Aguada should have been recovered in 8 to 10 years,” he stated, maintaining that the thumb rule pertaining to return on investment was not followed by the government, in this project, thus causing huge losses to the state exchequer.
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