BHUBANESWAR: Stakeholders in the tourism, travel and hospitality sector have urged Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to amend the state tourism policy to bring in more investment and visitors along with creating a dedicated land bank for establishment of more hotels at various destinations. Following the launch of a web portal, which seeks inputs for the vision document ‘Bikasita Bharat Pain Bikasita Odisha’, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO) wrote to the chief minister stating the existing policy has failed its objectives. It has neither been able to develop tourism infrastructure in the state nor attract foreign and domestic tourists.
HRAO chief JK Mohanty said Odisha continues to face an acute shortage of hotel rooms. A land bank was created for allotment of land for hotels at various tourist locations to increase the number of hotel rooms. But the land was auctioned and only builders won the bids offering higher prices and used it for building shopping malls, apartments, etc.
, Mohanty said. Requesting the chief minister to provide land to selected hoteliers at the industrial policy resolution rate, he said more star category or luxury hotels are the need of the hour in the state. The HRAO further suggested privatisation of Pantha Nivas properties and quick clearances from the government.
For establishing a property, a hotelier now requires 22 clearances from various departments which is time consuming and difficult, capital investment subsidies (35.