THE GOAN PANAJI
More than two decades after Goa first dreamt of building a world-class convention centre at Dona Paula when it felt the effect of its absence when it hosted the first edition of the International Film Festival of India in 2004, the project appears to have quietly slipped into the category of forgotten files.
The latest clue lies in the government's proposal to establish a new Rs 140-crore International Convention Centre at Tuem in Pernem.
While officials speak enthusiastically about futuristic infrastructure, smart technologies and international business events, the announcement inevitably raises a question: has the State finally abandoned its long-promised convention centre at Dona Paula?
The original project was born in the early 2000s, when the late Manohar Parrikar envisioned a convention facility that would support Goa's ambition of becoming India's equivalent of Cannes and strengthen its credentials as the permanent home of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
Ironically, while the convention centre never materialised, Goa achieved much of that vision. The State has hosted IFFI for two decades and earned recognition as the festival's permanent venue. But the infrastructure that was supposed to accompany that status remains on paper.
The site earmarked for the project tells its own story. Spread across nearly one lakh square metres of prime Dona Paula land originally acquired for the aborted Rajiv Gandhi IT Park, the property today lies largely unused, overrun by vegetation and unrealised possibilities.
Successive governments repeatedly attempted to revive the project through the Public-Private Partnership route. The proposed development was ambitious: a 5,000-seat convention hall, a 300-room hotel, multiplex, retail facilities and supporting infrastructure, all to be built under the Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer model.
But the project never got past the starting line.
Letters of Award were issued more than once, only to be cancelled after selected bidders failed to furnish performance guarantees and satisfy tender conditions. Fresh global tenders followed, but failed to attract credible responses. With every collapse, the project moved further away from reality.
Now, attention appears to be shifting northwards.
The government's proposed convention centre at Tuem would be smaller, accommodating around 2,500 delegates, and would form part of the Electronic Manufacturing Cluster.
The project is being projected as another pillar of the emerging Mopa-Tuem growth corridor, alongside the international airport and planned technology investments.
Nonetheless, the Tuem proposal arrives with its own complications.
Sections of local Alvara landholders have revived long-standing grievances regarding land rights within the EMC area and have warned of legal challenges unless their claims are addressed.
As a result, even before the first foundation stone is laid, questions are already being asked about whether the convention centre project could become entangled in delays and disputes.
Which brings Goa back to the unanswered question: if Goa is serious about building a convention centre at Tuem, what becomes of the grander project at Dona Paula? Is the vast tract of prime government-owned land still reserved for that purpose, or has the file effectively been closed without anyone formally saying so?
Until there is an answer, the Dona Paula Convention Centre remains one of Goa's most expensive unfinished dreams, a monument not of concrete, but of indecision.
