The Special Tourism Area (STA), which in the early 1990s was proposed as a self-contained, high-end exclusive leisure-cum-business destination at Puri, might finally see the light of the day. Shamuka, as the project is named, has languished for over two decades for several reasons, mainly due to lack of suitable investors and land acquisition problems. But after a latest decision at the level of Chief Secretary GC Pati, the project with high-end hotels, condominiums, crafts bazaar and an exclusive beach with stress on providing a distinct local culture orientation may become a reality for special category of tourists.
The total area envisaged for development of the project is about 3,000 acres, and for Phase-I, 972 acres has already been acquired. The original project has components like 13 luxury hotels, 18-hole golf course and golf villas, residential condominium, high-street bazaar, Gurukul, etc. However, despite repeated attempts, there was no positive response from the market.
“It may have been due to inadequate appetite from the hospitality sector, and therefore we propose to start with a scaled-down version of the original concept with minimum qualitative parameters,” said Tourism & Culture Commissioner-cum-Secretary Arabinda Kumar Padhee. Dr. Padhee hoped that once the project with minimum qualitative components like a few 3-Star Plus hotels, an exclusive beach and some condominiums gets going , response from investors is expected to be positive.
Besides the critical land acquisition, 500-KVA power supply has since been completed. The Idco has also commenced construction of boundary wall and will soon start the process for on-site infrastructures like internal roads and street lighting. Water requirement for the project will be met from the harvesting structures presently under construction out of the JNURM funds.
Feasibility study for the project was conducted last year by the HVS Consulting & Valuation Services, and based on the report the IFC is providing the consultancy support. The Bekal project in Kerala had started during the same time and has already taken off due to a robust institutional mechanism and proactive response from all stakeholders.
A delegation of Odisha Tourism led by Dr Padhee visited Bekal and Thiruvananthapuram last week and had interactions with the concerned officials and stakeholders. They also met Kerala Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson and discussed about a possible collaboration between the Odisha Tourism and the Bekal Resorts Development Corporation (BRDC) of the Kerala Government.