BENGALURU: In a major initiative, the state government on Thursday issued a notification privatising over 18 Tourism Department properties.
The private sector will be able operate these properties on the basis of Renovate, Operate, Manage and Transfer policy, announced by the government in the Karnataka Tourism Policy, 2014-2019. The decision may signal the privatisation of many other properties owned by the department.
Hotel Mayura Samudra located at Gokarna, a dormitory at Melukote, Yatri Nivas in Aihole, Hotel Mayura at Pushpagiri near Halebidu, and Hotel Mayura Keshava in Somanathapura are among the 18 properties to be handed over to private players for a period of 30 years.
The invitation to acquire these premises would be rolled out shortly, and interested people or organisations can participate in an e-tender to acquire them, sources said.
Severe staff crunch, poor maintenance and inadequate infrastructure are among the main reasons which have forced the KSTDC to go for privatisation, the sources said.
At the end of the agreement period, the acquirers will have the option to extend the agreement for another 30 years on mutually agreed terms and conditions. After the expiry of the agreement period, the properties would be handed back to the director of the Tourism Department.
According to official sources, the decision to hand over the tourism properties to private managements was taken after going through a status report on these assets.
The present cumulative value of these 18 properties is estimated at Rs 11 crore, and the department is expecting an annual revenue of about Rs 40 lakh. Proceeds from these would be used to improve infrastructure in other sites.The privatisation decision would enable the new players to refurbish 133 rooms and add 200 more to the existing capacity.
The department is spending about Rs 4 crore a year on their maintenance and operation now, the sources said.
For constructing any additional facility, the private players will get incentives under the project expansion category of the new tourism policy.
The sources said all the properties identified for privatisation would continue under the ‘Mayura’ brand, the trademark of KSTDC. The private partners would be required to promote the trademark compulsorily.
Defending the KSTDC’s decision on privatisation, Tourism Minister R V Deshpande said, “It would help to provide better amenities and improve infrastructure facilities for the benefit of both domestic and international tourists to the state. The flow of tourists is also likely to increase.”
According to sources, the department had originally identified 19 properties for privatisation. However, it dropped the proposal to privatise a property located near Sangam in Kanakapura following stiff resistance from Energy Minister D K Shivakumar.
He told Express, “The property which was identified to privatise was constructed with the financial assistance of the Union Tourism Ministry and is yet be thrown open for public. The ministry had released over Rs 7.5 crore for this.”