By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 11, 2018: Odisha government has something to cheer about with its Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) paying interim dividend for the first time ever since its inception in 1979.

Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda on Tuesday handed over a cheque of Rs one crore to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik towards interim dividend for 2017-18.

The state government had invested Rs 9.62 crore as equity in OTDC, but the PSU had been running at a loss for quite some time. The OTDC is presently operating 20 hotel units and has the largest air conditioned tourist transport fleet in the State.

“OTDC was making continuous loss since its inception till 2002-03 and only from 2003-04, it has started making profit. During the year 2016-17 the Corporation has made a net profit of Rs 5.89 crore and the accumulated profit as on 31.03.17 stands at Rs 26.20 crore,” Panda remarked.

OTDC is now working to improve facilities and services in its hotel units to provide better services to guests, according to a press release. As a part of such initiative, OTDC has applied for ISO certification, and also computerizing the operation of its hotel units, it added.

The Corporation will be soon adding a few Volvo air conditioned luxury coaches to its existing transport fleet, the release stated.

OTDC has started air conditioned shuttle service from foot hill to hill top of Dhauli to decongest the traffic from April 1.

Further, OTDC has set an ambitious target to make a quantum jump in turnover and profitability in the next three years by improving facilities and services in all Panthanivases.