Bengaluru: Faced with stiff competition from private hotels and resorts and bogged down by sluggish growth, the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation has decided to refurbish its properties across the State and attract more tourists to them.

And how! The corporation will hand over its properties to private players on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer system for 30 years. Nineteen such properties have been listed across Karnataka, of which 18 have already been cleared. The corporation will encourage tourists to stay at its properties instead of at private hotels and resorts. The Cabinet has approved the project and the KSTDC is now preparing tender documents and inviting bids.

The KSTDC has given the job to the Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Limited (iDECK), which surveyed the properties and listed 19 of them, including hotels, Yatri Nivas (travellers’ bungalows), dormitories, guesthouses and Mayura Hotels (managed by the KSTDC). It also listed a set of problems and probable solutions to them.

The most common problems in all the properties pertain to unkept toilets, no water in toilets, seeping roofs, bad quality of food, improper bedding and hygienic ambience, said Chandrashekar Doddamani, joint director, Tourism.

Doddamani stressed that the project was a “pure business venture” and the KSTDC would certainly take back the properties after 30 years. The specifications of each property and financial cost will be detailed in the tender document, he added. This is not the first time the KSTDC has been unable to manage its properties and decided to lease the maintenance to private players. A similar arrangement was made seven years ago, an official said.

The sorry state of affairs, he went on, is because most officials never bother to visit the properties and inspect the facilities there. Even when they travel, they prefer to stay in fancy and lavish resorts. They have never bothered to pay any attention to the condition of KSTDC properties. Even in case of the 19 properties, they have not surveyed all of them, but just relied on reports, the person added.