PANAJI
The Pramod Sawant-led cabinet on Wednesday approved the deal with a consortium of three companies to execute and then operate the much delayed project to set up an international convention centre at Dona Paula on a sprawling parcel of land where the now defunct Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat was once proposed.
"The cabinet has given approval," Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said addressing his customary post-cabinet media briefing.
The convention centre will have a five-star facility with around 300 rooms and allied facilities, he said.
Sawant did not specify the details of the deal when questioned but after briefly shuffling through the bunch of cabinet notes revealed the name of the three companies who are part of the consortium that bagged the massive deal as New Consolidated Construction Co Ltd, Maiwir Engineering Pvt Ltd and OCTMEC Consultants LLP.
There was also no word as to who the promoters or owners of these three companies are.
The project has a completion schedule of between 18 to 24 months and the consortium will operate it on a 5% revenue based sharing with the government but a 32% gross asset sharing basis for 60-year concession period.
Details of the project available, indicate that the main convention hall will have at least 5,000 capacity - a multiplex, an exhibition hall and other allied facilities like smaller hotels, malls, etc.
It was first conceived in 2015 on a sprawling nearly 1-lakh square meters primarily as a permanent venue for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) but has till date failed to take off after the first bidding process to choose the contractors for the project ended up in a fiasco.
The government cancelled the letter of award it issued to the DCS Solar-Vascon consortium after the latter defaulted on its bank guarantee of Rs 16.2 crore.
Meanwhile, Sawant said the cabinet has granted post-facto approval to the purchase of a Rs 30-crore building from Goa Housing Board at Porvorim by the General Administration Department. The GAD has housed offices of several State government departments there.
The Cabinet on Wednesday also granted post-facto approvals to several expenditures incurred by government departments, including a Rs 35-lakh payment to Sodexo, the company engaged to provide food in public hospitals. The payment was for food supplied to patients at the South Goa District Hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The cabinet has also granted approval to the outsourcing of setting up infrastructure for one of the departments at the super-speciality block of the Goa Medical College. The work order was issued on a nomination basis, Sawant said.
