No takers for tourism dept's Grihasthali scheme

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Grihasthali, Kerala Tourism's scheme to preserve traditional architecture while promoting hospitality has had no takers since 2011. Only 20 units have been approved since 2008. Industry watchers and Grihasthali owners attribute the dwindling numbers to lack of timely disbursement of subsidy and Tourism Department's inability to manage heritage properties.

Launched in 1998, Grihasthali heritage protection scheme promised a subsidy up to 25% of the investment for renovation subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakhs of buildings over 50 years old that bear characteristics of the traditional Kerala architecture.

The owner of one such property at Palakkad said he had applied for Grihasthali subsidy in 2001 and received the amount only in 2008. "The subsidy was of no benefit to me as I did not receive any money for five years, by then I had accumulated that much amount in interest owed to the bank. When the scheme was announced, I was happy that the government showed interest to promote heritage properties, but after running the property for almost seven years, I find that the business is not lucrative. I am paying commercial electricity tariff for 12 months when I have occupancy only for 110 days a year," said the owner of a 200-year-old property, who did not want to be identified.

M S Venugopal, deputy director planning, Tourism Department, agreed that there has been a backlog of subsidy disbursement. "Only 40% of the people mentioned in the "Approved Grihasthali Units list" have received subsidy. The corpus fund allocated to tourism has to go toward various schemes like electricity tariff subsidies, RT subsidies etc. There is a backlog of electricity tariff subsidies pending from 2008. Last year Rs 40 lakhs was allocated, this year we should try and increase that amount to Rs 1 crore to clear the subsidy backlog," he said.

V P Kurien, owner of a 130-year-old plantation bungalow in Kanjirapally, said that he did not want to apply for Grihasthali subsidy considering the amount of paper work and disbursement time. "I have a Grihasthali certification but I wish the department would do more to promote the property. From what I understand very few properties across Kerala carry a Grihasthali tag, so they could highlight it as a new product at trade fairs," said Kurien.

According to a 2008 study led by B Vijayakumar, principal, Kerala Institute Tourism and Travel Studies, the promoters of the projects were found to be relatively new to the industry and lack of business acumen was said to be the reason why the projects were draining money. The study finds that "No serious attempts have been made for stock taking the performance of the units." The solutions proposed by the study included "designing effective marketing strategies, disbursement of subsidies, tax holidays and linking Grihasthali units with promotional events."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/No-takers-for-tourism-depts-Grihasthali-scheme/articleshow/12601165.cms