Panaji, Aug 13 (TNN): The tourism department has decided to clean all 40 beaches by adopting an integrated system comprising mechanical and manual means wherever necessary at a cost of 14 crore.
There will be no machine cleaning initially and the task will begin with manual cleaning, alone, a tourism department official said.
The tourism department will spend a whopping 14 crore annually for beach cleaning with 7 crore for each district.
The North Goa stretch will be managed by Bhumika Transport, Waste Handling Services, a Mumbai-led consortium and the South Goa stretch will be managed by Ram Engineering and Construction Company, also a Mumbai-led consortium.
Dilip Parulekar, tourism minister, said, "We are happy to announce that we have taken up the initiative of cleaning beaches across the state. Cleanliness is a major concern and is the need of the hour."
The garbage collected will be segregated into glass, metal, paper and cardboard and other bio-degradable substances, plastic and non-recyclable waste before its safe disposal. The system will also provide well-maintained litter bins at an interval of every 100m for the benefit of tourists, said a tourism official.
The comprehensive beach cleaning will include combing of wet and dry sands with the help of beach cleaning machines as well as manually, depending on the population on the beach. It will be carried out on a daily basis ensuring that the beach beds are clean, safe for barefoot walkers. Special efforts will be made to clean the beaches soon after idol immersions, beach weddings, film shootings or any other tourism-related activity.