Crossing the Bridge
Goa’s thrust on better infrastructure and a high growth rate has paid dividends. It has also won the award for economy, infrastructure, tourism and cleanliness
Dnyanesh Hadkar, chief executive officer at Audi here in Miramar, Panaji, has a satisfied look on his face. The showrooms of Audi and even superbike Harley Davidson have seen good footfalls and a number of enthusiastic buyers in the past couple of months. The tourism season began in October, and already restaurants and star hotels in the city have full occupancy signs put up. Signs that Goa’s sustainable economy—a mix of tourism, good infrastructure and a penchant for cleanliness—is working can be found
everywhere in the capital Panaji.
Coming in No. 1 in per capita income (Rs 3,75,550 in 2016-17), Goa’s economy seems to have survived the slowdown seen in other parts of the country. The state’s GSDP for 2017-18 is estimated at $9.95 billion (Rs 71,400 crore), the fastest growing in the country with a growth rate of 8.2 per cent. As spending is on the high side, the state’s consumer price index in September 2019 was 145.9, the highest among the small states. In Goa, less than 10 per cent of the people are in the poor BPL category. It
had 46.9 banks per 100,000 people in 2018 and received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth Rs 111 crore in 2018-19, pointing to the healthy state of the economy.
One of Goa’s prominent revenuegenerating industries—iron ore mining—came to a standstill on March 16, 2018, following the Supreme Court’s order cancelling 88 iron ore mining leases in the state. The ban has led to a revenue loss of close to Rs 4,000 crore. However, the state has managed to keep its unemployment rate at a minimum, 3.7 per cent in August 2019. In 2016-17, Goa registered a Gross State Domestic Product of Rs 1,70,000 and Rs 1,39,000 per person in the manufacturing and services sectors respectively, thanks to its relatively young labour force (15-55 age group was 56.4 per cent of the population in 2017-18).
Goa’s two iconic rivers, Mandovi and Zuari, are getting a new identity as the state’s transport veins apart from continuing as its lifelines. Soon after the third bridge on Mandovi was completed in December 2018, work on the first section of an eight-lane road on the Zuari bridge started. These two bridges will drastically reduce travel time while going from north to south Goa. It is in continuation with the state’s thrust on the construction and widening of roads. In 2016-17 itself, the road length in the state was 4.34 km per sq. km.
Apart from road and air connectivity, the state has improved in mobile connectivity as well. Till April 2019, there were 1,151 mobile and 39 landline phone connections per 1,000 people. At least 2,824 KW electricity was available in 2017-18. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said in October that infrastructure is one of his government’s top priorities. “We have focused on building roadways, bridges, and now there will be the international airport at Mopa.”
His next target is development of tourism, focusing on three sectors— sun, sand and sea; hinterland tourism; and medical tourism. In 2017-18, 6.9 million domestic and 842,220 foreign tourists arrived in Goa. The state had 4.42 five-star hotels per 1 million people in 2016.
The silver lining in the state’s tourism sector is the growing number of foreign tourists despite the global slowdown. While 28,316 passengers came to Goa in 28 cruises in 2015-16, the number was 51,397 in 40 cruises in 2018-19. Similarly, the number of chartered flights by foreign tourists rose from 895 in 2014-15 to 981 in the year 2017-18.
The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG), the apex body of the state’s tour operators, has suggested several measures to expand the tourism industry. In a white paper submitted to the state government in June, TTAG recommended a reduction in service tax in an attempt to shed Goa’s image as an expensive tourism destination. The organisation is also of the view that the government places too much emphasis on the beaches to attract tourists, they feel it should focus more on Goa’s all-round natural diversity. There is also the need to build indoor halls with bigger capacity, where at least 3,000 people can gather. At present, the maximum capacity of such halls is 1,000.
Improved infrastructure facili
ties such as parking, changing rooms, wash rooms, drinking water at the beaches have increased footfalls. Dinesh Rai, a Kanpur resident, was impressed with the facilities at Candolim beach in north Goa. Rai and his family had visited in October and he was happy with the tourist information centre, clean wash rooms and filtered drinking water available at just Re 1. “Toilet and bathroom facilities were available for Rs 60, which is quite cheap,” he said.
Cleanliness is where the state has done a remarkable job. In 201516, 96.3 per cent households had improved sources of drinking water and 84.1 per cent households had clean cooking fuel. In 2018, 100 per cent schools had toilets for girls. No wonder, girl students at Hanuman
High School in Valpoi, Sattari, were happy with the sanitation facilities. “Cleanliness is our motto, apart from discipline,” says their teacher.
Apart from this, the garbage segregation plant run by the city corporation of Panaji has been a pioneer in the field of waste disposal. The corporation has encouraged housing societies to instal colour-coded garbage bins for dry, wet and hard garbage like wood and glass. Several societies have also set up small plants on their premises to convert garbage into fertiliser for use in their gardens.
A land of natural beauty, Goa has maintained its green cover. In 2015, tree cover was 0.09 km per sq. km and forest cover 0.6 km. While 21 per cent of North Goa, especially the Western Ghats section in Sattari, is covered with dense forest, the figure is 42 per cent in South Goa. There are three wildlife sanctuaries and one national park spread over 71 per cent of the forest area.
At the first-ever Vibrant Goa summit in October, CM Sawant promised investors his government would issue all requisite permissions for industries in 30 days. “Our top priority is creating job opportunities for the youth, both in the private and government sector,” he had told india today in an interview. “This includes self-employment via incentives to start-ups in industry (clean industry), services, agriculture, dairy, farming and fisheries.” He promises investors the cheapest power supply in the country, a highly educated workforce and great health facilities. ■
OUR TOP PRIORITY IS CREATING JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE YOUTH, BOTH IN THE PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT SECTOR” PRAMOD SAWANT Chief Minister, Goa