GOA LAND GRAB LED BY PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES AND HOSPITALITY

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GOA LAND GRAB LED BY PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES AND HOSPITALITY

Uncategorized January 22, 2026 , by Rajan Narayan

By Rajan Narayan

THE biggest land grabbers in Goa are not just projects like the Unity Mall in Chimbel but private universities promoted by friends of the BJP from Pune and Gujarat. The so called World Peace University is actually a Pune-based educational conglomerate led by Vishwanath Karad, whose nephew Deepak Karad is a BJP leader of Maharashtra. The parent institution is MIT, which stands for Maharashtra Institute of Technology, which runs several engineering and medical colleges in Maharashtra. The World Peace University has grabbed an estimated 100 acres of land in Tivim which incidentally is represented by a BJP MLA.
The other major land grabber is the Parul University from Baroda which has taken over 35 hectares of land in Quepem in south Goa. This university which is planning a campus to accommodate 8,000 students has the blessings of Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant. The Parul University, which promotes itself heavily on the electronic media, was inaugurated in Goa by the CM himself.
The ground was very meticulously prepared for the entry of the World Peace University and the Parul University. Nobody blinked an eye when the chief minister, also the education minister, moved a private university’s bill in the legislative assembly. Presumably, the bill was moved and passed to facilitate private universities to secure huge parcels of land.
The land which was given at very subsidized rates was government and communidade land. We may mention that communidades have huge amounts of common land and a lot of it has been taken over by the government. The invasion of Goa by private universities is strange one considering that Goa is already a hub of for technology education with over seven engineering colleges including BITs Pilani, the National Institute of Information Technology in Canacona, and the homeless Indian Institute of Technology. Several villages have refused to divert land for a permanent home for the Goa IIT campus which is looking for 50 acres of land.

BURGEONING HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
THE pressure on land is also driven by the Goa’s burgeoning hospitality industry. In recent years several new mega hotels have come up in the state. The Taj and Marriott groups are the fastest growing hotel groups in the state. It was not so long ago that the Taj group took over the management of the Cidade de Goa along with the newly built cliffside swanky block branded as Taj Horizon with its 400 plus rooms.
The Marriott group set up the Marriott Fairfield in Benaulim and the Marriott Westin at Anjuna. Anjuna seems to be a hot favorite of hotel chains both national and international. The Taj group has started work on a luxury beach resort in Anjuna under its Vivanta brand. Under the selection brand of the Indian Hotels group another Taj hotel is coming up in Anjuna. The Hyatt group is also launching a 50-star luxury hotel in Anjuna.
The Marriott brands in Goa include the Le Meridian Goa at Calangute, Fairfield by Marriott Goa at Benaulim, Courtyard by Marriott Goa at Colva and the St Regis Goa Resort (formerly the Leela off Cavellossim beachside by the river Sal. The Marriott group is also planning a 5-star hotel close to the Manohar International Airport at Mopa.
Other hotel groups are also planning to enter Goa. There is the Regenta Palace , a new 3-star deluxe hotel which is part of the Royal Orchid Hotels in Candolim. Royal Orchid was a major player in the Timeshare business at one time. There is Azalea by Stonewood Hotels & Resorts which has come up in Colva. There is the Amaranth boutique hotel which is a 12-suite luxury hotel which opened in Varca in 2025.
Some more. Under development are a new Taj hotel with 90 rooms in Calangute. The Raffles Group of Singapore which has hotels in South East Asia, including in Penang in Malaysia, has chosen an inland destination, Shiroda in the Ponda taluka. Raffles in collaboration with Fairmont, part of the Accor Group, is planning 120 luxury villas and a 400-room resort in Shiroda. The Oberoi group, not to be left behind, is planning a 170-room luxury hotel at Fort Aguada.
Again, the Cygnett Anamore select wellness resort is putting up 15 villas at Mopa near the international airport. King’s Mansion, which is a unit of the Planet Holiday group, is setting up an ultra luxury hotel in Candolim, by converting the former Kingfisher Villa of liquor baron Vijay Mallya. It may be recalled the Singapore-based company which has taken over the Bangalore property of Leela’s is redeveloping the Miramar Residency in Panjim into a 500-room super luxury hotel in Miramar.
The sun will never set on Goa considering how everyone wants a piece of paradise. Goan real estate companies do not have the resources to launch huge mega real estate projects in Goa. There was quite a lot of alarm when the Models group of the late Peter Vaz began putting up large housing complexes with eight to 10 buildings, such as the Millinnium Models Vista. But the Model complexes only have an average of 100 flats.
Perhaps the largest property development was undertaken by Joe Mathias of Mathia Constructions when he set up the Ocean Park conglomerate which apparently has over 350 flats over a dozen towering blocks. But even Joe had to go into partnership with a Bombay builder and transferred a large part of his land parcel to the Bangalore-based Prestige Group. Goa has only recently witnessed huge mega housing complexes with 500 and more flats, which are townships in themselves. This includes the Bhutani and Tata realty housing projects in Sancoale, each with more than 500 flats, respectively.
Recently, the Goa bench of the high court dismissed a PIL filed against a massive luxury housing project promoted by the Gera after a 20 years old court battle. This project at Kandola in Quepem will have almost a 1,000 flats spread over 20 to 30 tower blocks. The Lodha group is aggressively promoting a super luxury villa project of the size of six bedrooms set in one acre of land in Bicholim taluka. A towering monster is coming up in Miramar which will go up to 14 floors. We do not know what kind of fire safety systems have been drawn up for these towering buildings. This invasion of a real estate sharks is what the “Enough is Enough” movement launched by retired Justice Ferdino Rebello and like-minded Goans is up against. Even with the best goodwill in the world can Goa and Goans fight the huge money and political backing that the sell Goa lobby seems to command with State and Central blessing. Truly, a double-engine curse on the people of Goa.

LATEST BUGBEAR
THE latest bugbear looming anew is the Coastal Zone Management Plan. This plan decides which parts of Goa’s beautiful coast can be vandalized next. The State government is rushing through the public hearings on the finalization of the demarcation of areas which fall under the Coastal Management Regulation Plan areas. Already there are protests from all the coastal panchayats demanding more time to study the plans.
In every assembly session the government submits long list of projects which have come up in violation of CZMP, which includes not only beach front land but also khazan lands and wetlands. Minister for Revenue Atanasio Babush Monserrate has admitted that both the ill-fated Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub and the Bastian nightclub owned by Shilpa Shetty and friends have come up on khazan lands of beaches. Khazan lands by definition are areas which are still in the tidal zone of the sea, which includes backwaters. They are also called salt pans because they serve a dual use, salt, and paddy, harvested alternatively. A lot of Merces and Santa Cruz comes under khazan lands. Indeed, recently, rice grown in the salty khazan lands of Goa, have received a geographical index stamp.