Goa: With entertainment village, Mandrem set to get biggest tourism project

PANAJI: Goa tourism development corporation (GTDC) plans to set up a mega entertainment village spread over 1.5 lakh sqm in Mandrem. The foundation stone for the proposed project is likely to be laid in the next six months, prior to the assembly elections. “After the greenfield international airport at Mopa, this is another big project that has been approved for Pernem taluka. The first meeting on the project was held on Wednesday,” tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar told TOI on Thursday. Ajgaonkar said that while the required land is currently in possession of the revenue department, formalities to transfer it to GTDC will be done shortly. It will be built on public-private partnership (PPP) mode, but all required permission will be facilitated through GTDC. The cost estimation of the project is yet to be done, but they want to start at the earliest. Completion of the formalities pertaining to transfer of land, and then selecting a suitable bidder will take some time,” he said. The entertainment village, Ajgaonkar said, will have facilities to conduct small and medium-scale entertainment events. They have not decided whether it will be a suitable venue for any electronic dance music (EDM) festival that may take place in the future. “The place will be a hit as the project is coming within proximity of the international airport,” he said.