The proposal of chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar to have 5 golf courses in Pernem Taluka has been termed as infeasible by the tourism industry of Goa. According to the people in tourism industry 5 Golf Course project is overambitious project for the small place like Pernem, as it will become too crowded with so many golf courses. The officials are of the opinion that the golf courses should be clearly earmarked on the tourism master plan and regional plan and should be properly distributed in the state of Goa.
The senior officials at the tourism industry were referring to the statement made by the CM earlier this week where he suggested the need of 4 more golf courses in Pernem Taluka beside the one which was already approved by the government. Goa is too small for the 5 golf courses to set up in a single taluka but there is no harm to have golf courses scattered across the state.
The sources revealed that the tourism industry leaders are in favor of setting up modern golf courses which requires less amount of water and they are eco friendly and that is best suited for the state of Goa. The government should get the private entrepreneurs to invest in such facilities without acquiring the land “Let the promoters or landowners tie up to set up golf courses,” they said.
The industry tycoons are of a opinion that Goa government should make sure that these projects are not setup in the no-development zones, though they expressed their support to the project saying that the golf courses could be the source of replenishment of good air in days ahead, given the facts that the forests are being depleted and fields and land filling being done for construction.
According to the tourism industry magnets, there are two types of golf courses. The first one is conventional type which needs lot of water to maintain the greenery (grass) which is retained by using chemical fertilizers, these are the cheaper courses to built but they are not eco-friendly on the other hand there are modern and environment friendly courses which are designed in such way that saves lots of water by way of water harvesting, under this process the water is collected and stored during the monsoon. Besides there is a provision for the underground drip irrigation for minimizing the use of water, although this process is not cost effective at all and setting up this types of golf courses cost more than the conventional ones. “Though the design, setup and running modern golf courses is more expensive than the conventional ones, they have been proven ones all over the world, especially in ecological and environment-conscious countries,” they said.
According to them Goa should go for the eco-friendly golf courses despite of their expensive setup cost as the ecological and environment friendly people in Goa will welcome such golf courses.
Source: NT
