Coastal tourism investors’ meet in M’luru soon: Min

Mangaluru: Minister for tourism, ecology and environment Anand Singh said a coastal tourism investors’ meeting will be held in Mangaluru to attract investors interested in beach tourism projects.
“A preliminary discussion has already been held to hold coastal beaches investors’ meet in Mangaluru after two months. The priority of the meet will be for the development of beach tourism,” Singh said after holding a review meeting at the deputy commissioner’s office here on Saturday.
“Because of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notifications, we are not able to take up development within 500 metres of the seashore. We held discussions with officials on relaxing CRZ norms for tourism projects. Officials have informed that a CRZ map of the district has been sent to the environment department. The same map will be sent to the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), the nodal agency located in Chennai, for approval. Later, it will be sent to the Central government for approval,” the minister said.
For all new projects like hotels, resorts, eco-tourism and other tourism initiatives, approval is necessary from the NCSCM before it is being cleared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
To avoid this obstacle, the state government has submitted a proposal urging the Centre to hand over the responsibility of approving tourism projects through NITK Surathkal, instead of the NCSCM, Singh said.
“Bengre beach with 155 acres, an island of 32 acres, beaches at Tannirbavi, Panambur, Surathkal and Sasihitlu could not be developed further due to lack of CRZ clearance. For Sasihitlu beach, the government has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore for its overall development, but CRZ clearance is needed to implement projects. Hence, we have taken it as a challenge to bring CRZ relaxation for tourism promotion in the coastal region as per the CRZ notification of 2019,” he said.
“Being the minister for tourism, I will personally follow it up to ensure we get approval within two months. Once we get approval from the central government, the tourism sector in the district will grow automatically,” he said.