| The decision was taken during the corporation's board meeting, wherein, all its members agreed in-principle to recruit lifeguards following the increasing number of drowning cases along the picturesque 105-km silver-sand coastline. |
| Sanjit Rodrigues, managing director of GTDC, said: "We'll have a holistic plan with the industry and all stakeholders. It will not only involve providing infrastructure and employing lifeguards, but creating awareness, putting up signs in danger zones and training life guards too." |
| According to Fatima D'Sa, chairperson, GTDC, life-saving equipment would be procured soon and training would also be imparted to staff of beach shacks. "Hotels will be asked to arrange for a vehicle to shift victims to hospitals," she added. |
| Following a recent cabinet decision, the corporation has been entrusted the job of manning the beaches and henceforth recruiting lifeguards would come under the tourism corporation instead of the tourism department. |
| Lifeguards would be paid a remuneration of around Rs 6,000. They will not be posted too far from their residence, she added. |
| On whether the lifeguards who have moved the court for non-regularisation of their services would be absorbed, she said the boys were under the tourism department and not the GTDC. |
| "The GTDC would also request the fishing community and water sports operators to lend a helping hand in the event of any tourist drowning," D'Sa said. The corporation was also planning to erect lifeguard shades and boards, which would be designed by Goa College of Fine Arts students through a competition. |
| "Nobody can be blamed for the spate of drowning cases reported off Goan beaches. Mostly Indian tourists are vulnerable to drowning, as they often rush to the beach in an inebriated condition, eventually getting swallowed by the sea. They don't listen to the lifeguards or even the police," she said. |
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