Date:12/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/12/stories/2006051203860900.htm

Other States - Goa

Goa Government invites EoI for oceanarium project

Special Correspondent

PANAJI: The Goa Government has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) for consultancy for its proposed Oceanarium project, which is to be set up on a Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.

The Director and Joint Secretary, Science and Technology Department, N.P.S. Varde, told The Hindu that the project, expected to be a major tourist attraction, would provide the ambience of an "underwater world" with oceanarium tank and an acrylic tunnel and allied facilities. The project was slated to come up near the Goa Science Centre on the famous Miramar beach near here. It would be the first such project in the country.

The project initially planned to be set up on 32000 sq. m. of land in the early 1990s failed to take off. Mr. Varde said that the Australian company Studio C, which had taken up the project, failed to deliver as the Australian Government declined to give support to investments in India on account of sanctions against the country post-Pokhran nuclear tests.

He recalled that the State Government had signed an agreement with the Goa Theme Park Private Limited, a joint venture of Studio C and its Indian partner Bharat Oceanic Recoveries Pvt. Ltd.

The director said that indigenous expertise was not available for the oceanarium project. Hence it would have to be a collaborative effort between an Indian firm with foreign tie-up for "technology transfer," he said.