Bhubaneswar: The Tourism Department has once again invited bids for operating BN Palace at Paralakhemundi and Yatrinivas at Satapada on public-private partnership mode.
These two properties were among the seven for which the department had floated tenders in 2021. It had then leased out four of them at Bhadrak, Balasore, Panchalingeswar and Dhauli. There were no bidders to design, develop, upgrade, augment finance, operate, maintain and manage BN Palace and Satapada Yatrinivas at their own cost for a period of 30 years despite the department revising the tender deadlines twice, sources said.
The stakeholders are apprehensive of the development plans meeting the same fate again as there is no tourism infrastructure near these places.
Sources further said that there is a proposal to develop four other properties- Panthanivas at Keonjhar and Paradip, a part of the Panthanivas at Konark, besides TRC at Gopalpur through PPP mode. While the tender for Konark and Gopalpur was cancelled a few days back, the bids for the other properties will be opened on May 10,
The Odisha Tourism Policy 2022-27 released at the ‘Make in Odisha Conclave’ in December last year also said that government would continue to look out for and involve private sector partners in operations and maintenance of properties developed and owned by the Tourism Department across the state through a transparent process of bidding. It had also mentioned about seven of its accommodation units leased out to private operators.
The Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) owns and operates ‘Panthanivas’ accommodation units in nearly 20 locations in the state currently.
