Even before the State government, through the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) its special purpose vehicle established to manage its part of the organisation of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), could spell out the full form of 'Film City' the Comunidade of Loliem was ready with a proposal to offer its land.
Never mind that six years ago, that very parcel of land at the Bhagwati Moll plateau, had been earmarked for the Goa campus of the Indian Institute of Technology but the idea had to be abandoned because the entire Loliem village rose in arms against it.
The grounds on which the IIT Campus was opposed then, continue to this day. Yet the 'film city' proposal is yet to become a rallying point for the villagers of Loliem.
The hype and hoopla around the 'film city' apart, there is still a mountain of bureaucratic work the government will have to accomplish before the project is put down on paper and ready for tendering. And, there's no guarantee that there will be takers to commit the nearly Rs 1,500 crore investment which will be required for it to take off as the Uttar Pradesh government has learnt the hard way for its proposal for a similar film city in Noida along the Yamuna Expressway.
In Goa, more than five years since it was conceived and tendered, the government is still struggling to get the International Convention Centre project at Dona Paula where the aborted Rajiv Gandhi IT Park was to be, to take off.
"The film city too will have to be implemented in a similar PPP mode by floating a global tender" said a senior bureaucrat.
As things stand currently, the ESG has issued a public notice seeking interest in the project from those who have contiguous land holdings of about 250 acres to express their willingness to locate the film city project there.
So far, the Loliem Comunidade has been the first to respond but there could be more, the official said, adding that the State will have the benefit of learning from the experience of the UP government's Noida film city project which was initially proposed on 1,000 acres but has subsequently been cut down to about 230 acres.
The initial global tender floated by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority for the Noida Film City project had no takers as it involved a massive investment to the tune of over Rs 7,000-odd crore. The UP government has since revised the scope of the tender to cover only 230 acres as the first phase with a much lower investment requirement of about Rs 1,500 crore.
As for Goa's plans for a film city, there still some months if not more before the project could concretely be finalised on paper and eventually tendered calling for bids.
