The AAP government has made yet another attempt to develop the Ranjit Sagar Dam area in Pathankot as a tourism hub, with the Council of Ministers today approving the setting up of the Ranjitgarh Development Authority (RDA).Under the proposed Bill, to be tabled in the winter session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann will be the Chairman of the new authority, while Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond will be its vice-chairman.Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the RDA was being established to ensure sustainable development of the Ranjit Saga and Shahpur Kandi Dam areas.The latest move is not the first attempt to put the picturesque reservoir and its surrounding areas on the tourism map. The proposal has travelled through at least three governments over the past decade, with the scale, institutional framework and proposed model changing with successive administrations.Located in the Pathankot region near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh-Jammu and Kashmir trijunction, the reservoir has long been viewed by successive governments as having potential for water sports, eco-tourism, hospitality and other leisure activities.The first major push came during the second term of the SAD-BJP government in 2014, when the state government constituted the Shivalik (Dhauladhar) Tourism Development Board to promote tourism around the Ranjit Sagar Dam. The government subsequently appointed consultants, including Ernst & Young and BDP (UK), and explored private investment for developing the area.In 2015, the government held discussions with potential investors and envisaged developing the reservoir as a major tourism and hospitality destination. The proposed project covered more than 300 acres and included water sports, eco-tourism facilities, resorts and other tourism infrastructure. The proposal also covered islands, including Kulara and Mushurba. However, the project failed to take off after issues cropped up over getting environmental clearance and resultant difficulties in attracting private investment.When the Congress came to power, a second attempt was made to revive the project in a substantially scaled-down form. In 2017, the Shivalik-Dhauladhar Tourism Development Board was scrapped and the project was shifted to the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB).The new proposal focused on two sites — Kulara Island, measuring 18.54 acres, and Niloh Tikka Palangi, measuring 56.22 acres — together covering about 74.76 acres. The government proposed developing the sites through the public-private partnership (PPP) route. Though the Congress government managed to get the environmental clearance, the project did not take off.The AAP government has been trying to revive the project yet again. The creation of a separate authority under the Chief Minister’s chairmanship is expected to provide a dedicated institutional structure for coordinating and implementing the proposed tourism development.