The Kerala Tourism Department’s unique initiative to provide wayside amenities for tourists through its Vazhiyoram Project seems to have hit a dead-end. The project, which was launched with much fanfare, endorsements by movie stars and a heavy investor response, aimed to provide 250 Vazhiyoram outlets in the course of three years.
After over five years since the project’s inception, the state spots no more than 13 such outlets. Under the project, the state government would provide a subsidy of up to Rs 7.5 lakh for each of the Vazhiyoram outlets. The outlets, run by private parties, were proposed to be set up along the highways, major roads and routes to the various tourist destinations in the state.
All the outlets would spot standardised designs and architecture, offering quality restaurants, washrooms and car parking facilities. While the proposal looked rosy on paper, the prevailing high prices for plots adjacent to the national highways acted as a dampening factor.
“The project would have succeeded in those states and countries where there are long stretches of vacant land along the major roads and highways. However, in Kerala, the land adjacent to the national highways is over-crowded and there are hardly any roadways without wayside eateries, shops or petrol bunks. This, coupled with high land prices, meant that the investors were unable to earn a decent return on investment,” said a senior official of the Tourism Department.
The authorities said that the government had not guaranteed heavy profits upon investment in the project in the first place. “The Vazhiyoram outlets were proposed to be low-cost outlets, roping in private players who had the required land. The government was to provide Rs 7.5 lakh as subsidy or a maximum of 25 per cent of the project cost. But many investors took loans and made heavy investments, leading to loss and loan defaults,” said U V Jose, additional director, Department of Tourism.
The state government has now launched the ‘Take a Break’ project. But unlike Vazhiyoram, the small outlets under the project will be fully developed by the Tourism Department.
Comments
0 comment