IMPHAL, February 25: Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh today informed the house that no company has accepted the tender for construction of ‘cable car’ system which will connect Sendra with Chaoba Hill since a Thailand company backed out.
The Chief Minister was responding to queries raised by BJP MLA, Joykishan Singh, who moved a motion for discussion on a matter of public interest on the inability to produce utilisation certificate for various projects in Tourism Department.
The Chief Minister stated that the project cost is estimated to be Rs 81.81 crore of which the Ministry initially sanctioned only Rs 10 lakhs in the year 2013-14, as token.
As per condition set by the Ministry 60 percent of the project cost should be under PPP model while 25 percent will be sanctioned by the Ministry (Rs 20 crore) and 15 percent by the State government (Rs 6 crore), he said adding that the State share has been sanctioned in the government’s account.
In 2014, a company from Bangkok namely M/S Red Hill Company applied for the tender of the said work; however it backed out following the sudden change in regime of their country, revealed the Chief Minister.
Subsequently, the PWD department refloated the tender for the second time but no company applied for the tender owing to the Law and order situation of the State and economic viability in the project, said Ibobi.
According to Ibobi, the project should attract around 4 to 5 thousand tourists in order to sustain the operation of the ‘cable car’ which is not under the capability of the government.
Nevertheless, he said that the government will continue to explore more options in order to materialise the proposed project and no final decision has been taken in regards to the project.
Further the Chief Minister in his clarification stated that there were many reason behind the why the mega tourist projects could not take off smoothly.
He explained that most of the projects are awaiting funds from the centre despite having given Utilisation Certificate (UC) adding that around 17 UC for several tourist projects are waiting final fund approval.
With regards to the Sendar Tourist Circuit, he clarified that instruction has been given to the MDS to finish the project making it clear that no fresh fund would be release until the earlier project is not over.
With the MDS handling several similar projects, major portion of the remaining project are now handled by the PWD, revealed the Chief Minister adding that efforts are on full swing to finish the project at the earliest.
Moving his motion, Joykishan contended that there was no significant change in the development of mega tourist project funded by the Tourism Ministry the funding of which began since 2011 to 2014.
Joykishan pointed out that despite having sanctioned required fund for the development of Sendra Tourist Circuit, not a single component mention in the project was taken. Instead, one can witness a swimming pool which was not a part of the project component, claimed Joykishan.
He termed the failure to take up mega tourist project as unfortunate as it could also create job opportunity for many unemployed youths in the state rather than a economic booster.
Participating the discussion were MLA Dr I Ibohalbi, K Shyam, Th Syamkumar, L Ibomcha, Kh Joykishan, Nandakumar.