Panaji: With civil construction and structural development entering their final stages, the tourism department has initiated the process to hand over the operations, management and commercial maintenance of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Digital Museum and the upgraded Ponda fort complex at Farmagudi to a private operator under a public-private partnership (PPP) model.The project spans a primary 15,568sqm site at Farmagudi along National Highway 748, supplemented by a 10,000-sqm land parcel near Gopal Ganpati Mandir provided by Goa Tourism Development Corporation Limited (GTDC). While state govt funded the physical construction and initial digital infrastructure under central tourism development schemes, the tourism department is transferring operational responsibility to a specialised private entity on an “as is where is” basis for 15 years.The selected licensee will assume full operational control over the Ponda fort complex and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Digital Museum. According to the department’s request for proposal (RFP), the private partner’s scope extends across specialised installations, including a hologram room, virtual reality and augmented reality (VR and AR) spaces, a 5D theatre, projection-mapping exhibits, multimedia galleries and a scheduled light-and-sound show.Beyond the digital exhibits, the operator will run the museum’s boat gallery, war costume gallery, activity zones featuring horse riding trails, landscaped areas, temple premises and two dedicated parking lots where approved parking charges will range from Rs 40 for light motor vehicles to Rs 200 for buses.Crucially, the contract balances commercial monetisation with public accessibility and regulatory oversight. The department said that the private operator may market the complex’s upper-level banquet hall for private events, seminars and cultural programmes at market-driven tariffs, provided it reserves the venue for 30 days annually for official govt functions at no venue rental fee. Structurally, the operator must maintain an approved, consistent historical narrative regarding Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the Maratha presence in Goa in Konkani, Marathi, Hindi and English. Any structural alteration or removal of artefacts is strictly prohibited without prior state authorisation.To ensure advanced destination marketing and data management, the operator must deploy a heritage data platform to digitally catalogue historical assets, supervised by historians and domain experts. This system must be fully integrated with the tourism department’s AI platform.
