Mayem lake to get Rs 3cr facelift by Goa tourism development corporation

PANAJI: The Goa tourism development corporation (GTDC) will shortly undertake upgradation of its only lake-view property at Mayem by spending about 3 crore.

GTDC chairman Nilesh Cabral said that earlier the Mayem lake property was supposed to be upgraded by a mining company at a cost of 4 crore, but with the stoppage of mining, the mining company has backed out of the project.

Cabral said that the GTDC will float a tender in February to appoint a consultant for the upgradation project. The consultant will advise the government on how to go about beautifying and upgrading the property. But Cabral has a few ideas of his own; for example, he intends to buy 20 pedal boats for tourists at the Mayem lake. He wants to introduce paid fishing in the lake.

Cabral also wants to build a ‘Kids zone’ with fun items like an array of laughing mirrors and other toys installed therein. He also wants to build picnic zones where families or groups may have their own picnics by paying a nominal fee to the GTDC.

While the Mayem lake property is 1.47 lakh sq m, the GTDC will only develop 15,000 sq m in the first phase.

The GTDC chairman also said he has plans to create a hub of adventure tourism in the mining belt in the hinterland of Goa.

He said the beaches are already crowded and even parking has become a problem. There is plenty of space in the hinterland and adventure sports like hot-air ballooning can easily be taken up there, he said.

Cabral said that he has already had two rounds of talks with representatives of a paragliding company from Pune who are interested in starting the activity in the hinterland. He also spoke of his idea to start a caravan facility for tourists who can hire a caravan and drive it to certain ‘Caravan Points’ in the hinterland where they can camp there for the nights.