By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, July 12: Venting the state government’s ambitions for the tourism sector, Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday listed the government’s initiatives to give tourism a fillip.
The minister highlighted the funding for 1,000 homestays per year, the signing of an agreement to fund the Meghalaya Eco Tourism Infrastructure Development Programme (MEIDP), besides inclusion of Orchid Lake Resort, Polo Orchid Shillong, under the joint venture model.
On the homestays initiative, Paul encouraged the youth to take advantage of the project.
“…out of the whole amount of Rs 10 lakh per homestay, 70 per cent is being funded entirely by the state government through PMEGP and the balance amount, which is 30 per cent, will come under loan under Meghalaya Rural Bank (MRB), for which no mortgages will happen,” the minister added.
“We have envisaged a very ambitious programme which is to fund 1,000 such home stays per year,” he said.
He also revealed that the government is in the process of receiving applications, while encouraging more parties to apply.
“All of these applications will be processed by the MRB and once that is done, the bank will inform the department, which comes up with the balance amount of 70 per cent, our incentive to the project, and this will go directly to the account of the applicant,” he added.
With regard to the MEIDP, Paul further said a loan agreement will be signed within the next two weeks between the Government of India and the New Development Bank (NDB). “The state will also stand to benefit tremendously from a loan agreement that will be signed between the Government of India and the New Development Bank (NDB) to fund the Meghalaya Eco Tourism Infrastructure Development Programme (MEIDP),” he said.
“Through this loan agreement, we will be able to create new accommodation facilities in areas where tourism has not been taken up till now in a big way due to the absence of infrastructure,” he added.
With regard to the joint venture initiative, Paul said, “…there will be an agreement between the government and the private players based on their expertise in hospitality and tourism and we will be able to generate extra revenue through the participation of private players in the tourism sector,” he said.
Revealing that there will be two models — private public partnership (PPP) and joint venture — the minister said immediate ones will first go under joint venture including the Orchid Mawkasiang as it has not been able to garner the expected revenue.