By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 31, 2015 : Odisha government on Saturday announced to form a joint venture – Shamuka Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. (STDCL) to hasten up for the much-hyped Shamuka project as well as other tourism projects around Puri town and peripheral tourist locations like Chilka, Satapada and Raghurajpur.

Minister of state tourism, [independent charge], Ashok Chandra Panda said both the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) and the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) shall have equal equity participation in the joint venture company. The state tourism secretary will be the chairman, an official release said.

To begin with, both OTDC and IDCO will invest rupees five crore each, the minister added.

OTDC has been asked to take the necessary steps to finalise the memorandum and article of association and register the STDCL with the Registrar of Companies at the earliest.
As many as 982 acres of land was acquired for the Shamuka project in Sipasarubali village near Puri.
With a dedicated company in place for the Shamuka project, its implementation would be expedited, said Tourism Secretary L.N. Gupta.

Though the project was conceived 25 years ago it has hardly shown any signs of taking off at the ground level.
The project was planned over 3,000 acres of land on the sea beach and in first phase, development plans were made over an area of 972 acres by the Department of Tourism. The project was visualised as a one stop rejuvenation facility for domestic and international tourists.

The principal project components were star hotels, resorts, international convention centre, golf course, golf villas, cultural villages, craft bazaar, gurukul, on-site infrastructure with a total capital investment of Rs 116.59 crore.

In the first phase, IDCO started construction of a boundary wall around the project area and thousands of trees were felled. Subsequently in 2007, the Puri Beach Protection Council raised hue and cry over felling of trees for the project and it was resolved in a meeting of Tourism Department, district administration and Puri Konark Development Authority (PKDA) that no tree would be cut for infrastructure development of Shamuka.

The NGT considered this resolution and admitted the case besides issuing notices to the officials concerned.

Shamuka, apparently, has been the slowest project being implemented by the Tourism Department so far.