The Karnataka government has sought an early action to relax the Coastal Regulation Zone-1 (CRZ-1) norms to develop beach tourism in the state. Currently, under the CRZ-1 norms, no construction is allowed up to 500 metres from the high tide zone and prevents investors coming forward to invest in creating tourism infrastructure.

Karnataka tourism minister R V Deshpande has sought an intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter and facilitate relaxing coastal regulations from the present 500 metres to boost the tourism potential in the coastal region of Karnataka and in other parts of the country.

“Though I respect the concerns of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) with regard to coastal regulations, we would be missing an opportunity to develop tourism, generation of employment and revenue if we do not undertake development of sea coast,” Deshpande said in a memorandum to Prime Minister Modi.

Karnataka is bestowed with 320 kms of coastline with pristine beaches. However, hardly any beach is fully-developed to attract tourists from within the country and abroad due to strict implementation of CRZ-1 norms.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has sanctioned a coastal circuit project to develop beaches. The entire coastal tourism development is dependent on CRZ relaxation, Deshpande said.

He said the Ministry of Tourism has constituted a committee, following the recommendations of M S Swaminathan, for suggesting changes in the CRZ rules. “We have sent a proposal identifying 42 beaches and four islands that have tourism potential seeking relaxation. In many foreign countries with sea coast, we find development even up to 25 to 30 metres,” he said.

The committee constituted by the MoEF has visited Karnataka and other states and collected all required inputs to sort out the issues, he said.

Deshpande said, during a recent meeting to Bengaluru with Mahesh Sharma, Union minister of tourism and culture and minister of state for civil aviation, he had discussed these issues pertaining to the tourism sector. In order to achieve the vision of making India a top tourist destination, there is an urgent need to decentralise and delegate more powers to the local offices of the Archeological Survey of India among other offices of the ministry of tourism and culture and make it conducive to the growth of the tourism industry, Deshpande said.

He also brought to the notice of the prime minister that the local offices of several central organisations like the ASI, ministry of culture have no powers to approve projects for the improvement of basic amenities at several World Heritage Sites like Hampi. He urged the prime minister to intervene and accord early approvals for several pending projects.

The Karnataka government has initiated several measures to improve the tourism sector in the state. A novel scheme of ‘Adopt a tourist destination’ in collaboration with corporates was launched on the World Tourism Day in the state. Various corporates have come forward to adopt museums, tourist destinations, bird sanctuary among others for a period of five years and investing in improving the surroundings, Deshpande said.

“Already, we have received interest from seven-eight corporates who have come forward to adopt several places. For instance, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman of Biocon, has shown keen interest in adopting the Visvesvaraya Industrial Technological Museum through the Biocon Foundation,” he said.

The state government had to strive hard to convince the local office of the National Council of Science Museum, Ministry of Culture to send a proposal to the government of India for considering the Biocon proposal, Deshpande added.