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Scam waves rock Goa's oceanarium venture

Asia's largest oceanarium, to be set up in Goa, seems a non-starter.

One of the reasons is the unseemly delay in commissioning the Rs 1 billion dream project which was expected to be ready by August.

The promise made in the state government's contract with Studio C, an Australian firm, signed in December '96, has thus been unkept. The Goa government had signed an agreement with Goa Theme Park Private Limited (a Goa-based firm floated by Studio C and its Indian subsidiary Bharat Oceanic Recoveries Private Limited) to promote the country's prestigious project as a major tourist attraction.

The company has since shifted its local office to Thiruvananthapuram. The company now assures to begin work from August and commission it by February 2000.

This has expectedly raised the hackles of all the opposition parties in Goa. Allegations have been levelled that the contract has been awarded without verifying company's credentials.

"The company (Studio C) is a fraud, having no experience in building such oceanariums," alleges Opposition leader Kashinath Jalmi.

Although state science and technology minister Mauvin Godinho dismisses these allegations, Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane recently agreed in the assembly to a probe the credentials of the Australian firm as well as the bona fides of its senior engineer, Rodney Wright.

According to Jalmi, Wright was merely a site engineer in the Singapore-based Alliance Technologies and Development Ltd, and has built a few aquariums in the past. But Gordon Growther, owner of Studio C, and Wright apparently claim to have built many oceanariums including Mooloolaba Underwater World at Queensland in Australia, Nanjing Underwater World in China, Hillary's Underwater World in Perth and Manly Underwater World in Sydney.

But Jalmi says all the oceanarium companies have expressed total ignorance of the existence of Studio C, showing the letters from the former.

Growther has apparently claimed that his firm was selected from among 16 bidders. The fact, however, is only two others bid for the contract.

Godinho himself has dismissed Studio C's claim of the project being exempted from entertainment tax. The project would be built on BOOM (build, own, operate and manage) basis.

Growther apparently sought the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, assuring to generate 75 per cent funds from within India. Investigations however revealed that the foreign companies he has collaborated with are his own companies bearing different names. The project also got delayed because he could not raise the required capital in last two years.

Such poor record did not deter the Goa government from leasing out 32,000 square metres of prime land at the famous Miramar beach to the Australian firm for a song, when the market price is Rs 5000 upwards per square metre.

Further confounding the government's largess is the fact that it plans to have no restrictions on the price of tickets, and would earn only three per cent on the gross sales.

Although Godinho points his accusing finger at the Department of Ocean Development for approving Studio C's contract, the opposition parties refuse to believe him. "The DOD is merely a nodal agency and Studio C was given contract solely at Godinho's initiative," alleges the Bharatiya Janata Party's legislator Manohar Parrikar.

Besides having world's largest underwater aquarium, curved acrylic tunnel, touch pool and external turtle pool, the prestigious project would also have research-based facilities including a laboratory, marine archaeological museum and multi-media plaza.