Daijiworld Media Network – Goa (RD)

Panaji, May 19: Goa's ambitious beach safety plan to curb increasing deaths due to drowning has caught up in bureaucratic files delaying its implementation, tourism officials confirmed.

The plan envisages beach safety including life guards and constant monitoring of the beach stretches by installing close circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

Tourism department officials confirmed that an agency has already been finalized to implement the plan but the financial sanction is awaited.

The state tourism minister Francisco Pacheco said that the department was in the process of giving final touches to the proposal for the life safety along the beaches which he said is designed to reduce fatalities to near zero.

Commenting on increasing deaths due to drowning, the minister said that the guests should exercise self caution and should remain away from danger zones.

He said that despite life guards manning the beaches, the deaths occur as their numbers are minimal.

"Self caution is the best option to counter inadequacy of the prevailing system of life guards," he added.

Elaborating further the life safety system, he said that the every visitor will be under the care of the arrangements by the agency.

"The functioning of the system will be monitored by high ranking officials through specially designed software. It is an outcome of elaborate analysis and will involve state of art equipments," Pacheco said.

There is the greater need for more life guards who will be equipped with the required equipments to deal with any emergency, he added.