Ganta bags Bhavani Isle dirt cheap

VIJAYAWADA: In what could be a virtual gift to Chiranjeevi's chief aide and senior legislator Ganta Srinivasa Rao for helping the merger of Prajarajyam Party into the Congress, the state government has almost handed over the prestigious Bhavani Island tourism project for development purposes to his firm.
Although the entire process was finalized through open tenders, every care was taken to ensure that the contract did not slip away from Ganta's firm.Interestingly, the tenders for the privatization of several tourism projects, including Bhavani Island, were called a year ago and finalized after the merger of PRP into the Congress.
The 111-acre land abutting Krishna river on Bhavani Island is one of the major tourism projects that earns good revenues for the government. Shockingly, the government had decided to hand over the project on lease (public-private participation) for 33 years. In addition, another 25 years of lease has also been guaranteed on the 'right of first refusal,' which means that the contractor would virtually become the owner.
Even by conservative estimates, the land alone on the Bhavani island would cost more than Rs 400 crore (an acre costs Rs 4 crore). However, the government estimated the cost at a mere Rs 20 crore. Taking Rs 20 crore as the base price, the government fixed the annual lease of the entire chunk of 111 acres at just Rs 1.11 crore, which is equivalent to 5% of the total land value.
Bhavani Island consists of 24 cottages, two restaurants, one conference hall and three tree-top cottages. Boating jetties and an open-air theatre with a capacity of more than 500 and sporting activities are added attractions on the island, which attracts a huge number of tourists during weekends and vacations.
At present, Bhavani Island is fetching revenue of Rs 2 crore annually, of which the government is not spending even 10 per cent for development to attract more number of tourists. Divisional manager, APTDC, Juvvadi Raghupathi Rao told TOI that the corporation is yet to finalize the bids for the development of the island.
Ganta, a legislator from Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district, had played a key role in the merger of PRP into the Congress and is tipped for a ministerial berth in the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet.
Ganta owns a shipping company, has business interests in infrastructure and education and is known to be close to tourism minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar. Vatti was in-charge minister for Visakhapatnam and also a Kapu to which community Ganta belongs.
TDP district president Devineni Umamaheswara Rao demanded the cancellation of tenders of Bhavani Island project. "It is nothing but virtual loot of public property. How could the government hand over a major tourist attraction to a private firm and that too for 50 years," he asked. He warned they would undertake protests if the government goes ahead with the project.
Meanwhile, the tourism department is in the fast lane in finalizing tenders for tourism guest houses located at Jalayagnam projects like Gundlakamma, Kadem, Bramham Sagar, Yeleru and Priyadarshini Jurala on PPP basis.