Sindhudhurg's Dream Of First Luxury Hotel Comes Closer To Reality After Three Decades Following A Tripartite Agreement; Landowners To Receive ₹1.44 Crore Per Hectare

Maharashtra’s coastal Sindhudurg district is finally set to receive its first five-star hotel after a landmark tripartite agreement was signed on Tuesday. The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) agreed to pay Rs 1.44 crore per hectare to the landowners, ending a 32-year stalemate in building the luxury resort spanning across the coastal villages of Shiroda and Velagar.

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), IHCL -- which owns the Taj Hotels -- and the Shirorda-Velagar Landowners’ Co-operative Society Ltd signed the agreement at Mantralaya in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and Tourism Minister Shambhuraj Desai. Under the deal, IHCL will develop a luxury resort on a 54.40-hectare land parcel in Shiroda-Velagar, paying a landmark compensation of Rs 1.44 crore per hectare directly to local landowners.

Three-Decade Delay Linked To Compensation And Land Acquisition Issues

The proposal for a premium tourist resort in Shiroda-Velagar was first floated in 1994, when the Sindhudurg District Collector acquired private land on behalf of the MTDC, alongside government-held land. However, for three decades, the project remained locked in bureaucratic red tape and socio-political friction. The biggest hurdle was resistance from local landowners, who opposed the takeover due to inadequate compensation structures under initial public acquisition frameworks.

Earlier, private landowners were treated merely as displaced parties rather than as long-term economic partners. However, the local families gained significant bargaining power once they formed the Shirorda-Velagar Landowners’ Co-operative Society Ltd. Moreover, the lack of high-capacity transport infrastructure and the coastal area’s ecological sensitivity delayed commercial land handovers.

State Approval Paved Way For Final Agreement

The breakthrough came only after Desai gave in-principle approval to the tripartite agreement between the state, IHCL and the villagers in December 2025. Following the MTDC’s Board of Directors' formal approval of the property terms at its 177th meeting on April 28 this year, the State Cabinet approved the signing of the agreement on June 30.

The total financial outlay for land acquisition settlement stands at Rs 60 crore, to be disbursed by IHCL to local landowning families in three structured phases. Under the first phase, Rs 34.41 crore will be paid for 23.88 hectares of land, marked as Plot-B1. The resort will be built on the land spanning across coastal villages of Shiroda and Velagar, which is around 45 minutes from Sindhudurg Airport in Chipi and an hour away from Goa’s Manohar International Airport in Mopa.

The economic impact of the project is expected to extend beyond immediate land compensation as the agreement mandates targeted employment clauses and local capacity building. Under the agreement, eligible project-affected persons (PAPs) and local residents will receive hiring priority while IHCL is said to roll out vocational hospitality training programs to boost local youth employability.

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