Know this new amusement park that would be coming up soon in Chennai after 8 long years of delay?
Posted on: 26/Oct/2023 9:37:55 AM
To start an amusement park near Chennai, Wonderla Holidays have now got approval and clearance after 8 years. This has caught the attention of many now.
The MD of Wonderla Amusement Parks & Resorts, Mr. Arun K. Chittilappily expressed his happiness. He spoke about how necessary approval, clearance and no objection certificates etc have been obtained from the TN government. He added that Bhumi puja was performed on Wednesday, 25th October 2023. By June 2025, the project would be completed.
It is learnt that the project would involve an investment of Rs 400 cr roughly and the amusement park would come up on the 62 acres of lands at Illaur village in Thiruporur taluk near Chennai.
In 2015, at the first Global investors Meet or GIM, Wonderla Amusements Parks and Resorts had signed a memorandum of understanding or MOU with the TN govt. The LBT or local body tax has made the project not to take off at that time. It is noteworthy that at that time the amusement parks in TN were paying 10% in LBT levied by TN over and above the 18percent in Goods & Service Tax or GST.
Scrapping of the project:
In the year 2018, it was hinted by the company Wonderla that the amusement park project would be scrapped if the TN govt did not withdraw the LBT. Once the Coronavirus pandemic was brought under control, the company held discussions with the TN govt.
Mr. Arun MD later spoke about how there is now a 10 year tax holiday present. It is learnt that this new amusement park would be totally different from other amusement parks of the company.
Tourism policy:
The TN govt in the recent tourism policy mentioned that single window clearance would be given to the tourism projects in the amusement park 7 theme park space. Truth is that the govt envisages one large format amusement park (just like the global theme parks such as Disney and Universal Studios etc) on 100 acre land on the Chennai outskirts. The private sector would play its role in the development of the upcoming amusement park.
