Tag Archives: Maharashtra

Maharashtra’s CM Eknath Shinde announced that a 320-acre international central park will come up in Mumbai. The Royal Western India Turf Club has agreed to offer 120-acres of land of Mahalaxmi Race Course to BMC. Additionally, the state govt has 200-acres of reclaimed land of the coastal road in Worli, which will be used to build a big theme park.

Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis unveiled a ₹350 crore plan to accelerate tourism in Vidarbha. The State govt will develop numerous facilities to augment tourism, generate employment in the region, and develop a tourism circuit including forest and water tourism sectors.

Saurabh Vijay, Principal Secretary, Tourism & Cultural Affairs, Maharashtra, speaking at the Mumbai Roadshow for GTIS 2023, has said, “We have identified properties that can be developed in PPP mode. These properties will be showcased at the Global Tourism Investment Summit,” he added.

The Directorate of Tourism (DoT), Maharashtra Tourism, Govt. of Maharashtra is finally kick-starting the inspection of hotels for awarding industry status to them. The Tourism Directorate of Pune is the first one to commence the inspection on the 3rd and 4th August 2022. A total number of 181 non-classified hotels have registered and applied since June 2021 in Pune region that the inspection committee and the appointed agency will be visiting. The Government of Maharashtra had awarded Industry status to the Hospitality sector in April 1999 but that remained only on paper and wasn’t implemented. In 2020, there was a development in the decision when the State government issued the GR, announcing the criteria for levying taxes and charges at the industrial rate for the non-classified hotels. Since then, non-classified hotels were appealed to register and apply to avail the benefits. And now, as the regional offices have received a considerable number of registrations, the inspection committee will begin their site visits. The Committee will be chaired by the Deputy Directors of the respective regions, a representative of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) department, regional representative of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), local representative of Hotel and Restaurant Association (HRA) and a representative of Tour Operator Association (TOA). The agency Qualstar has prepared a road map for inspecting sites which will be followed by the committee. Dr. Dhananjay Sawalkar, Joint Director, Directorate of Tourism (DoT) informed, “So far 446 applications across Maharashtra have been received by DoT. After inspection, if these hotels fulfill all the said criteria, they will be eligible to receive industrial status. This will make electricity charges, water bill, property tax and,non-agricultural tax available to the registered …

The hospitality sector is a critical part of the tourism industry. COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact on Maharashtra, and the state government has been taking concrete steps to revive the tourism industry. In this regard, the Maharashtra government had announced that from 1 April 2021, hotels in the state registered with the Union Ministry of Tourism to be charged an industrial rate for electricity, seed fee, water tax, property tax, development tax, increased carpet area index, and non-agricultural tax. Hotels that are not registered with the Union Ministry of Tourism will be charged tax at the industrial rate only after meeting the stipulated criteria for attaining basic minimum standards. The state government also established an expert committee for this cause and also ensured that the process of meeting the criteria is completed within the duration of two months. Following that, hotels that meet the conditions for the online application process are levied taxes and fees at the industrial rate. The state government issued this decision in compliance with the approval given at the cabinet meeting on 5 November 2020. The mechanism in place is assisting in the growth of hospitality businesses by providing industry status in a fast and effective manner, as well as promoting sustainable practices.

Aaditya Thackeray, Tourism & Environment Minister, Maharashtra has said that in the post COVID world, tourism sector will be our sponge industry which will absorb the highest number of employment growth, highest revenue for the state, and it will have a ripple effect on the country’s economy.

The high court of Bombay at Goa on Monday permitted the state government to allow the entry of fully-vaccinated persons in Goa without a COVID-19 negative test report. Partially vaccinated and non-vaccinated persons will still have to produce a negative Covid test report for entry. The expert committee has also unanimously agreed and decided to explore the possibility of issuing a universal pass which is linked to the Co-Win portal as adopted and issued by the government of Maharashtra.

Uddhav Thackeray, Chief Minister, Maharashtra, on Tuesday launched many initiatives of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) to boost tourism in the state. The projects include initiatives such as a new boat club at Ganpatipule in Ratnagiri, a renovated MTDC resort at Sinhagad fort in Pune, and a new website of MTDC that will go live from Wednesday. MTDC also signed Memoranda of Understanding with online travel companies MakeMyTrip and Goibibo to promote MTDC properties and with M/s SkyHigh India to start skydiving and adventure sports activities. A MoU was also signed with Maharashtra State Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Pune, for annual training of MTDC staff.

Directorate of Tourism (DOT) Maharashtra is conducting ‘Special 5 days Guide Training Programme’ for tribal communities, at Karnala Sanctuary and Phansad Sanctuary in Raigad district from today till August 6. These will be offline trainings. Dhananjay Sawalkar, Director, DOT Maharashtra, says, “To make the visit enjoyable, tourists need good guides to provide authentic and relevant information.”

Following the fresh lockdown measures introduced in Maharashtra from April 5, Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Commissioner, BMC – Mumbai, clarified that passengers landing in Mumbai city during curfew hours – whether from out of state or internationally – will be allowed movement within the city. Their boarding pass and/or flight ticket will be enough for this. The night curfew is in place from 8pm to 7am and anyone breaking the rules will be fined Rs 500, said government officials.