Jamshedpur, March 22: The Union tourism ministry’s effort to promote tourism in the state seems to have been grounded.

With the deadline of the ambitious “Capital subsidy scheme for accommodation infrastructure” ending on March 31, not a single private party has come forward to avail of the facility.

Under the scheme — which was floated in September last year — the tourism ministry had proposed to grant a subsidy of 10 per cent on the loan taken for the construction of tourist hotels by private parties in the state.

“So far, we have not received any project proposal from any private party. With barely 10 days left for the deadline, we wonder whether any proposals for the scheme will come,'' said tourism director Sanoj Jha.

According to department sources, under the scheme, the Union tourism ministry had agreed to grant subsidy up to Rs 25 lakh for one star category hotel, Rs 50 lakh for two-stars and Rs 75 lakh for three-star hotels or 10 per cent of the term loan, whichever was less.

This scheme was offered to the newly created states, including Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Uttaranchal.

However, the state failed to avail of it as it failed to generate much awareness about the scheme among the public.

“Lack of proper scheme publicity the government’s dilly-dallying attitude in clearing projects are the two probable reasons for its failure,'' tourism department sources said.

Four financial institutions — Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) — were assigned by the Union tourism ministry to facilitate loans to private parties interested in setting-up tourism hotels.

Assistant general manager of SIDBI regional office in Ranchi, Arup Kumar, told The Telegraph that lack of proper publicity is one of the major reasons for the lack of response for the scheme.

“Since it was an enterprising scheme, the tourism department should have taken extra effort to publicise the scheme. We are keeping our fingers crossed,” said Kumar.

He added that there was no chance of extending the scheme as he had discussions with the Union tourism ministry in this regard.

Union tourism ministry officials made it clear that the scheme cannot be extended beyond March 31, he said.

According to tourism department officials such subsidy was being granted by the ministry in an effort to boost the tourism sector in the newly-constituted states.

“Tourism is the growth engine of any state and the scheme was offered keeping this in mind,'' added tourism department officials.