Panaji: Nearly six years after the idea was floated to construct a tribal bhavan for the ST community, state govt on Monday invited bidders to construct a tribal bhavan at Penha-de-Franca for Rs 76 crore. Govt has set a deadline to complete the bhavan by March 2028.The one plus three-storey building will have 25-bedded hostel facilities for both girls and boys respectively, in addition to a library, a 250-sitting capacity hall and a cafeteria.The bhavan will also house the officies of the directorate of Schedule Tribes, ST corporation and Tribal Research Institute.Govt attributed the delays to the project approved in Oct 2019 to land disputes and civil litigation pending in multiple courts. These include a civil suit before the district court in Mapusa, a mutation appeal before the joint mamlatdar of Bardez and a partition case before the inspector of land and survey records, Bardez.Despite the legal hurdles, govt recently decided to move ahead with the project based on the opinion of the advocate general.The project has now been handed over to the project/technical cell of the tribal welfare department. A detailed project report (DPR) has been prepared, and the tender has been now floated to select the bider to complete the project.A budgetary provision of Rs 15 crore has been made for the financial year 2026, a senior officer of the tribal department said.Nearly a year ago, Priol MLA Govind Gaude had flagged govt’s failure to deliver on the long-pending tribal bhavan, an issue seen as one of the factors that led to him being dropped from cabinet.
