KRISHNARAJA SAGAR: The state government, which had announced a Disneyland-modelled amusement park in Brindavan Gardens at Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) in the budget in a bid to promote tourism, will be floating global tenders in a month for the project under Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer basis. The estimated cost is Rs 1,500 crore.
The government which has conducted a preliminary Detailed Project Report (DPR), has identified 290 acres of government land near KRS for the project. But this will not include the existing 74 acres of existing Brindavan Garden area. The government is also thinking of utilising 336 acres of additional government land nearby for the project. The preliminary DPR was prepared by an architecture firm which has taken up works in amusement parks sector across the world.
A committee including officials of tourism, transport and revenue departments, besides politicians from Mysuru, Mandya, Kodagu and Hassan, will be formed to discuss and develop the concept of linking tourism packages to include tourist places in these districts. Members of the Mysuru royal family will be part of the panel.
Karnataka stands 7th in terms of domestic tourism and 11th in international tourism. With the Disneyland-like project, the government aims to create 25,000 jobs in Mysuru, Mandya and neighbouring districts and also attract about 15,000 tourists daily to Brindavan Gardens.
Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar who inspected the location on Saturday, said, “The global tender for the project will be called for in a month. The tender will specifically have a condition that only international companies that are running such amusement parks will be eligible to participate in the tender and not even a single rupee will be invested by the state. The companies will share the revenue with the government.”
The government has planned to construct a Grand Street (flanked by miniature historical buildings of Karnataka and shops) and a Grand Sthamb and other amusement concepts at the place.
It has also planned to build a 120 metre-high structure for a statue of Goddess Cauvery in a lagoon within the site. This will include a 60-metre-high golden-coloured metal statue of Goddess Cauvery standing on a 60-metre-high brown granite pedestal.
The projected is expected to be completed in two years and will have space to park 5,000 cars.
‘NOT TRYING TO COPY STATUE OF UNITY’
When asked about the government spending so much on building statues, D K Shivakumar denied that this was done on the lines of Gujarat’s Statue of Unity or Maharashtra government’s Shivaji statue. “The Karnataka government is not spending a penny on the whole project. The bidder will spend on his own and this statue will attract thousands of tourists here. Moreover, we are not spending thousands of crores on building statues of Sardar Vallabhabai Patel and Shivaji from public money. This is purely on a PPP model and the government will earn revenue from it even without investing,” he said.