Odisha govt to form SPA for development of Talasari beach

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 24:

The Odisha government has decided to form a Special Planning Authority (SPA) for development of Talasari beach in Baleswar district.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting presided over by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here today.

As per the decision taken at the meeting, the SPA would consist of 36 villages of Talasari, Chandaneswar and Bhusandeswar areas.

While Baleswar collector would be the chairperson of the SPA and a senior official of the Tourism department would be its member secretary.

The chief minister asked the officials to give special priority to the tourism development apart from development of other sectors in the area.

He also asked them to entrust an agency specializing in tourism development to prepare a master plan for the beach development project.

The meeting decided to form a project management unit (PMU) for the development of tourism.

Among other things, growth of hotel industry, lighting of beach area, construction of roads, coastal security, development of Chandaneswar and Bhusandeswar temple areas and facilities for the tourists were also discussed.

Tourism and Culture minister Ashok Panda, Bhogarai MLA Ananta Das, chief secretary GC Pati, Development Commissioner UN Behera, DGP Sanjeev Marik and secretaries of Home, Housing and Urban Development, Rural Development and Tourism and Culture departments were present at the meeting.