Bhubaneswar: A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, tabled in the Odisha State Legislature, has flagged major financial irregularities and revenue shortfalls in the state’s tourism initiatives, with the seasonal Eco-Retreat programme emerging as a particularly costly failure.
Covering the period up to March 31, 2024, the audit found that the Tourism Department spent ₹234.24 crore on organising these luxury glamping events between 2019 and 2024 but recovered only ₹26.56 crore in revenue, resulting in a net loss of ₹207.68 crore.
Conceived to offer 3-star resort-style accommodations with luxury tented cottages, water sports, and fine dining, the Eco-Retreat project expanded rapidly from a single site in 2019–20 to seven locations by 2023–24. However, the state’s aggressive expansion was met with crippling operational deficits. While annual expenditure on these retreats escalated dramatically from ₹17.34 crore to ₹83.39 crore, corresponding revenues barely budged, moving from ₹3.85 crore to just ₹7.40 crore over the five-year period.
Across four years of scaling between 2020 and 2024, the department spent ₹234.24 crore but recovered only ₹26.56 crore, sinking the project into a net deficit of ₹207.68 crore. The CAG noted that the average loss incurred per retreat skyrocketed by 137 per cent from ₹4.58 crore per site in 2020–21 to ₹10.85 crore per site in 2023–24.
Occupancy remained stubbornly low, ranging between 14 and 57 per cent in 2022-23 and 23 to 62 per cent in 2023-24.
Auditors attributed the poor turnout to inadequate marketing, substandard food quality provided by operating agencies, and frequent power fluctuations or outages at the sites.
While acknowledging the potential of eco-retreats for sustainable tourism and job creation, the audit emphasised that the programme should have been rolled out only after thoroughly assessing commercial viability and expected returns on investment.
The report detailed systemic failures across other major state tourism initiatives. A total of ₹898.48 crore in tourism development funds sat idle in bank accounts across nine executing agencies due to missing statutory clearances, administrative delays, and land acquisition hurdles. A overwhelming majority of these unutilised funds, ₹806.44 crore, or nearly 90 per cent, remained parked within the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) and the Shamuka Tourism Development Corporation (STDC). Similarly, an ambitious plan to establish 15 beach shacks along the coastal belt completely collapsed, despite an initial expenditure of ₹1.25 crore on infrastructure, not a single shack became operational, resulting in an estimated annual revenue loss of ₹45.50 lakh.
Compounding the fiscal missteps are serious statutory and environmental violations. The audit revealed that permanent and semi-permanent structures worth ₹28.84 crore, including Ramchandi beachfront promenade, Puri-Konark Marine Drive approach road widening, and Talasari Panthasala, were erected inside protected reserve forests and wildlife sanctuaries without securing mandatory forest or wildlife clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
Furthermore, several centrally sponsored projects collapsed mid-way. PRASAD scheme in Puri was shut down after four out of seven components remained incomplete despite spending ₹6.49 crore. Likewise, projects under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, accounting for ₹41.60 crore across Barkul, Satpada, Tampara, and Gopalpur, failed to yield results due to damaged equipment, uninstalled floating restaurants, and unauthorised structural demolitions.
Taken together, the findings portray an ambitious tourism drive undermined by weak financial discipline, planning gaps and operational shortcomings.