PANAJI: The recently announced entertainment village project proposed to be set up in Mandrem is already witnessing murmurs of protest. The department of tourism, which is pushing the project in a bid to raise the state’s value as a tourist destination finds itself in a spot.
A tourism official said that Goa does not have a designated area or a facility complete with parking arrangements to organise crowd pulling events like the electronic dance music (EDMs) festival Sunburn, which has been a huge success over the past decade. An entertainment village like this will ease matters for event organisers, who will not have to run pillar to post for various permissions, giving the sector a thrust, the official said.
“No sooner was the project announced, some people started objecting. It is unfortunate that even before knowing what it is about, people raise objections. We don’t know how to go forward,” a tourism official said.
For the last few years, the Sunburn was held at Vagator. “The organisers have to go through a gargantuan of formalities right from hiring the place from a local body to getting permissions from various authorities,” he said.
The organisers, he said, also have to pay huge sums for renting a place for parking. To make matters worse, someone will go to court over some issue or the other, the official added. “Lot of problems would be solved if there is a special area to conduct entertainment events,” he said.
The project site has a scenic view of the sea below and is suitable to conduct various entertainment events, even bike rallies, the official said. “It is a huge area, which is currently in possession of the revenue department, but lying idle. It is better to have some project there than leaving it open to encroachment,” he said.
Since 2017, the government has been saying that it does not want EDMs to be held in the week of December, a time when Goa’s footfalls are at a peak in Candolim-Calangute, as it adds to the burden of the security machinery. Traffic during the Christmas week in Calangute-Calangute is always choke-a-block.
