Panaji: Even as the first chartered flight is expected to land at Goa airport on October 4, the beach shack owners have kept their fingers as construction of the palm thatched structures have been stayed by the Green Court.
The National Green Tribunal on September 14 has stayed Goa Tourism Department’s shack policy as the state has failed to submit its Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) before it.
Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG), an umbrella organization of the tour operators, said that Caper Travel Company Private Limited will be bringing in the first chartered flight of Russians to Goa by Royal Flight.
“The flight will arrive on October 4 at Dabolim International Airport at 6.30 p.m.,” the TTAG has said in a press statement issued here on Saturday.
What’s significant is that though the foreign tourists will be arriving in the State during first week of October, the beach shacks, which are main attraction for the travelers, will not be set up by that time.
“The shack owners have moved to the High Court pleading to vacate the stay granted to the shack policy by NGT. The case would be heard on coming Monday,” Manuel Cardoso, General Secretary, Goa Traditional Shack Owners’ Association (GTSOA) said.
He said that the fate of around 365 shacks across the 105 kilometre stretch of Goa’s beaches is hanging fire. “We are expecting that the High Court will stay the NGT order so that we can start constructing the shacks,” he said.
The shacks are dismantled during monsoon season only to be reconstructed in October when tourist season starts, officially.
“We cannot blame the State government as the shack policy was in place much in time. We hope that the High Court will give us respite,” said Cruz Cardoso, President, Shack Owners’ Welfare Society.
During the last tourist season, 292 chartered flights had arrived from Russia. The state is also looking at bleak arrivals from the UK after collapse of Thomas Cook.
