Coming soon: India's first Sea World in Maharashtra
Tondawali, some 450 km south of the city, is an obscure but dainty village in Malvan, Sindhudurg, in the Konkan belt in the state.The state government has approved a Rs.-509 crore project to build India's first oceanarium here, or the Sea World.
A simulated sea will be created along
with that of a real lake. And finally, people will be able to enjoy a
mock Antarctica.The proposed airport at Chipi, to come up by 2015, is
just 12 km away and can be reached within 20 minutes.According to
officials, the project will be taken up on a Private Public Partnership
(PPP) model, and the state has approved the project with a willingness
to provide Rs. 120 crore as the viability gap
funding. The project will attract 13 lakh visitors in the first year
itself, and the figure will cross 43 lakh by the tenth year, the tourism
department claims. Other than that, it will also try to woo the 28 lakh
holidaymakers to Goa, only around 100 km from the site.
Officials said that it
would generate employment opportunities for the locals as well. The site
in Tondawali was favoured on account of the following merits: good sea
water quality, attractive land topography, good accessibility to beach
and backwater, rich natural beauty with sandy beaches, backwater and
forest cover, sources from the tourism department said.