Navy sinks MTDC’s marine tourism hub plan

Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation’s (MTDC) efforts to develop a marine tourism hub at Angria bank near Malvan were shelved after the navy objected to it, due to security reasons.

MTDC had recently conducted a survey and came out with a blueprint to develop Angria bank which lies about 105 km off the west coast of the Vijaydurg region of Malvan. It is a ‘submerged plateau’ with more then 20 metre in depth. The MTDC survey team had found it to be rich in marine life with coral reef and other water bodies.

The waterfronts near Gulf of Kutch, Lakshwadeep, Andaman and Nicobar islands are the few other places in India where coral reef is found apart from the western coast.
The dimension of the region is said to be 40 km from north to south and 15 km from east to west. The plateau, which has steep banks on each side, offers a breath-taking view of the Arabian sea. The bank is about a two-hour boat ride from the Malvan coast.

MTDC officials said that tourism at this spot would have also brought lots of foreign exchange, as it would have attracted a lot of foreign tourists apart from the domestic ones.

“It would have been an ideal marine tourism spot in western India had everything gone ahead as per the plan,” Vijay Chauhan, managing director, MTDC.

Sources said that MTDC, in order to attract tourists
at this place, had also planned villas, resorts, restaurants, and water games like scuba diving, snorkeling, water scooter, banana rides, para-sailing, angling (fishing), etc.
Officials said that after the survey, MTDC approached the navy to get clearance from them. “However, the navy had objections from the security point of view and also that the said spot belongs to the defence, which we were not aware of,” added Chauhan.