E-Paper
Tourist bungalows to pvt hands on lease: U.P. cabinet gives nod
Uttar Pradesh approved leasing UPSTDC tourist bungalows to private entrepreneurs for 30 years to improve facilities, with a 5% annual lease increase and 50% going to UPSTDC.
The state cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to give the tourist bungalows of Uttar Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation UPSTDC) on 30-year lease to private entrepreneurs to bring about an improvement in facilities for domestic and international tourists.
Uttar Pradesh minister for tourism Jaivir Singh said the 30-year lease would be in two parts (15 years extendable to another 15 years with mutual agreement) through e-bidding.
He said there would be a provision for a 5% increase in the amount of lease every year. He said 50% of the lease amount would be given to UPSTDC as handling charges, while the remaining amount would be deposited in the government treasury.
Singh said that the state government has been making efforts to give the tourist bungalows on five-year lease since 1998 and this was not attracting private entrepreneurs. He said the UPSTDC has 87 tourist bungalows and out of them only those running in losses or on the verge of closure would be given on lease.
He said the state government had decided to give some of these tourist bungalows on five-year lease and these included the tourist bungalows situated in Badaun, Jhansi, Agra, Ghazipur and Garh Mukteshwar.
Singh said the inflow of tourists has been going up in the state. He said the state attracted 16 crore tourists in 2016-2017 and this went up to 48 crore in 2023. He said UPSTDC tourist bungalows were in bad shape and there was a paucity of staff to run these bungalows.
