Goa, Feb 18 (TNN): The latest announcement from state authorities gives citizens of Goa—especially tourism stakeholders—very good reason to recall the late American President Ronald Reagan's famous one-liner, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

According to Goa Tourism Development Corporation and its advisers from the consultancy firm KPMG, its new plan "to reposition the state as more than a beach destination" will involve massive redevelopment of eight state-owned sites—in Colva, Farmagudi, Kesarval, Bicholim, Britona—over 5.5 lakh sq m, via tenders that will be completed by June this year. Bids have also been invited for "Segway tours, motorized paragliding and hovercrafts, luxury yacht services, and a helicopter tourism service".

The biggest scandal is what is projected for Miramar beach—already more crowded and garbage-strewn than ever before in its history—where the existing 52-room Residency hotel is slated to be replaced by "an Oceanarium (aquarium that uses the sea)" with "a ropeway across the Mandovi river" and another five-star hotel "nearby". All this construction is planned just a few dozen metres from the high tide line, with no mention of relevant CRZ regulations.

GTDC's plans for Miramar are outright absurd, besides all the potential illegalities involved. Oceanariums are acknowledged as obsolete, and are being shut down all over the world. India's ministry of environment and forests is just one committed opponent. A ropeway across the Mandovi at that point would be surefire disaster, extraordinarily dangerous in the powerful winds that accompany each monsoon. Building these white elephants simply makes no sense, that too exactly when tourism in Goa is undergoing a real crisis, when stakeholders are urgently petitioning the government to help safeguard Goa's real assets: the once-pristine beaches, the once-healthy environment, the once-robust local culture.

Government mania—not just in Goa, but all over the world—for highly dubious "infrastructure development" is largely explained by what economists call "the Tullock paradox", where the low cost of "rent-seeking" offsets massive gains. As the popular economics writer, James Surowiecki puts it, "for contractors, bribery will always be attractive, because the cost of a bribe is dwarfed by the value of a contract". What results, warns Transparency International, is "projects which are unnecessary, unreliable, dangerous and over-priced". Contrary to what is promised, they actually lead to "poverty, economic damage and underdevelopment".

Such boondoggles—wasteful, fraudulent projects in the name of "infrastructure development"—are particularly damaging in Goa, where all evidence points to an unprecedented crisis in the tourism sector. The sophisticated travellers who returned precisely because of the intact biodiversity, abiding sense of solitude and peace, and diverse, multi-layered cultural riches, are now staying away because of the ongoing Bollywoodesque branding, the tawdry gambling and sex tourism, and the degradation of Goa's cultural atmosphere. Every punter arriving in the state to visit the deeply unpopular casinos simultaneously drives away a dozen families of exactly the kind of visitors Goa actually needs.

This past tourism season saw a remarkable rise in the number of visitors to Goa—a full 30%. But ask the stakeholders of the quality segment of the sector, and every one will admit that revenues have been markedly reduced. The state authorities are presiding over an unprecedented race to the bottom, with overwhelmingly larger numbers of low-end tourists that add up to ever-shrinking revenues.

Goa's administrators have never recognized that the state's original infrastructure has always been world class. Extraordinary beaches, astonishingly varied biodiversity, uniquely confluent ancient culture, amazing built heritage, and warm, tolerant and generous hospitability like no other place on earth. Tourism could have symbiotically flourished alongside all this, but consistently bungling sector management is instead ensuring its steady destruction.

Miramar beach is still something of a marvel—broad sands which still host many migratory birds—a living beach despite the city mushrooming around it. It is a family-friendly oasis, a refuge of fresh breezes and marvellous sunsets, a most beloved public space for all Goans.

But just this year, irresponsible permissions to run bargain cruises from one end, has turned part of Miramar into a waiting room and outdoor toilet, with trash strewn widely around under the casuarina trees. Instead of fixing that urgent problem, GTDC intends to make matters infinitely worse, to massively overbuild the low-rise Residency hotel , to plant an oceanarium stretching right into the waterline, and to complete the conversion of a once-idyllic beach into a chaotic bus-stand by erecting a ridiculous ropeway across the river that nobody wants and no one needs. We are on the verge of a final nail in Miramar's coffin, and yet another giant blunder for Goa tourism.