Bhubaneswar: The Odisha govt has accorded in-principle approval to a comprehensive restructuring of the tourism department’s Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC), paving the way for a major organisational overhaul. The decision was taken at a recent high-level meeting convened to review proposals for restructuring of OTDC and strengthening the department’s statistical wing.Officials said the restructuring has been proposed in view of OTDC’s expanding role in tourism promotion, hospitality management, transport services, tourism infrastructure development and land management. The proposal envisages rationalising the existing cadre structure, creating a well-defined management hierarchy, strengthening the infrastructure, marketing, hospitality, tour and transport wings, establishing a dedicated land bank division, and formulating comprehensive cadre and service regulations.Officials observed that OTDC’s current organisational structure requires a comprehensive overhaul to meet its expanding mandate and future business requirements. The meeting also stressed the need for specialised functional divisions and a stronger human resource framework.Among the other key decisions, the meeting accorded in-principle approval to strengthening the tourism department’s statistical wing by creating 31 additional posts, including one joint director, one assistant director, six statistical officers and 23 assistant statistical officers.The revised restructuring proposal for OTDC will first be placed before the corporation’s board of directors before being sent to the administrative department, public enterprises department and finance department for concurrence.The meeting also approved strengthening OTDC’s land and civil wings to support the state’s tourism development goals under Samruddha Odisha-2036 and Viksit Odisha-2047. It further recommended exploring the deputation of officers from other departments to enhance the corporation’s organisational capacity.In another significant decision, the chief general manager of OTDC’s civil wing will be delegated the powers of a chief engineer to accord technical sanction for tourism infrastructure projects, a move expected to expedite project execution.The meeting also approved, in principle, the restructuring of the department’s statistical wing to build a robust tourism data management system for measuring outcomes, assessing the impact of govt interventions and supporting evidence-based policymaking. The directorate of economics and statistics will revise the cadre strength accordingly and deploy the required manpower to the department.
