Hope floats for Essel's fun park in Bhopal

The Rs 60-crore plan of the Essel Group company Pan India Paryatan Ltd (PIPL) to set up an entertainment park in Bhopal is still on. The Madhya Pradesh government is likely to hold a meeting in this regard to decide on allocating land to the company.

The company had last year expressed dissatisfaction at the land allotment procedure of the state government and had said it would pull out the project from the state.

The state government had allocated 50 acres opposite to the National Judicial Academy in the Bhadbhada locality. However, due to bureaucratic hurdles, the allocation could not materialise.

"A meeting was scheduled on September 7 this year but it was postponed due to unavoidable circumstances. The meeting has been rescheduled and will take place soon," a government source told Business Standard, adding, "Certain demands of the company regarding land rates will be discussed."

The company has deposited 10 per cent of the amount for land acquisition.

The proposed amusement park will have all facilities that the group's Mumbai park has. Work on the project was expected to begin in 2006. However, a senior government official had objected to allotting land to the company.

The Essel group had also proposed to set up 25 multiplexes all over the state (at least in 20 districts) with an investment of Rs 200 crore. However, the plan is yet to come out of the drawing board.

The group planned to set up three-screen multiplexes but the multiplex policy, notified on June 22 last year, restricted multiplex developers to two-screen only.

PIPL started its amusement park business in Mumbai, where it set up Esselworld in 1989, the city's first amusement park. Later, it created Water Kingdom in 1998.

Bhopal has an amusement-cum-water park created by a local company few years back.