The state tourism department is planning to bring in a private player to run the floating restaurant in Patna.

The state tourism development corporation used to run it, but the facility was shut last year after the ship, MV Ganga Vihar, developed a snag.

A tourism department official said that the idea of a private player came after efforts to get the ship repaired failed.

“The agencies having expertise in repairing the ship were quoting Rs 1 crore as repair cost. It was too high a sum and hence the department first explored the idea of purchasing another ship but the proposal was dropped because the same kind of problem might have come in the future,” said the official.

From 2009, the MV Ganga Vihar used to take residents and tourists for a cruise on the Ganga and a restaurant had been set up on it for the convenience of the passengers. The ship had been purchased for around Rs 2 crore. It was last seen plying on the river in January 2017 during the inaugural function of Prakash Parv, the 350th birth anniversary of the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh.

The tourism official said that after deliberations in the department it was decided that the existing ship would be auctioned and a private player would be invited to run its own ship to deliver the same service.

“The corporation would get a fixed royalty from the service provider. The selection of the service provider would be done on the basis of competitive bidding,” said the official.

The official said that some interested firms had already called on corporation officials with plans to run the service but it had been decided that the selection would be done via competitive bidding in which quality of service and amount of royalty would be the two main factors while finalising the deal.