Goa to be one stop destination for entertainment industry

Panaji, Nov 22 (UNI) Goa, now the permanent venue of the International Film Festival of India(IFFI), will soon turn into one stop destination for national and international entertainment industry with the state government having decided to set up state-of-the-art infrastructure for film production and create a network of high bandwidth to cover every home.

''Goa is best placed to take the entertainment sector on a quantum jump. Within six months, every home in the state will be wired by fibre to give them a bandwidth of 100 mega bytes, that will make then virtual centres for production of entertainment software,'' announced state Chief Secretray J P Singh here.

He was delivering the inaugural address 'Goa and Entertainment Sector:the Road Ahead' at the two-day CII conference on 'India: The Big Picture' ahead of the 37 th IFFI beginning here from tomorrow.

The state government has signed a Rs 100 crore agreement with the United Telecom Ltd(UTL) to provide the broadband facility which will be available for just Rs 500 per month to every home, Mr Singh said.

The project will be completed by March 2007, he said.

The Chief Secretary also informed that their ambition was to make Goa a film hub, not only nationally but also internationally, for production, tie-ups and networking.

'' By 2008, the state government will organise the IFFI on its own when the new state-of-the-art convention center will come up at Dona Paula,'' he added.

The work on the convention center will begin in December when a BOT agreement will be signed.

Mr Singh said the Crest Animation has already decided to set up an animation production studio in the state and is in the process of acquiring 25 acre land, and filmmakers from the South are also keen to set up a film city here, but the state government has not yet taken the final view.

Apart from all this, the government has already embarked on an infrastructure development project with the private sector, which includes development of inland waterways, building a cruise terminal, constructing a six-lane highway and introducing monorail connecting the capital city of Panaji with the neighbouring town of Mapusa.

And to provide energy for all these actrivities, the state government has planned to set up hydel project worth Rs 3 crore to enhance power supplies.

All these projects are worth around Rs 1600 crore.

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