Dhenkanal: A tourist rest house project named ‘Jajabara’ which was taken up by the state tourism department in Dhenkanal district in order to promote tourism here has faltered amid administrative apathy.
The project was intended to provide state-of-the-art accommodation facilities to visitors from the state as well as outside. That said, it has seen little progress amid administrative impasse and red tape.
According to a source, the tourism department started ‘Jajabara’ resthouse project in 2018, besides national highway (NH-55) at Govindpur area under Sadar block in Dhenkanal district. It was then chalked out to be constructed on 1.20 acre of land with an estimated cost of Rs 1,50,00,000. The project was targeted to be complete by 2020.
It is known that only the retiring rooms have been completed within the stipulated time limit. Construction work was stopped following the imposition of lockdown restrictions, which has not yet resumed even after the announcement of relaxation, some local residents said.
Angul district tourism officer (DTO) Jagdish Ray, who is also in-charge of Dhenkanal district, said, “Few days back, Jajabara project was decided to be run in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. I had visited the project site recently. However, no official order or newspaper advertisement has been issued in this regard”.
It is worthy to note that Dhenkanal district has a special place on the state tourism map. Despite its rich natural resources and hundreds of tourists thronging several tourist destinations here round the year, very little has been achieved in developing the places.
PNN