Nagaland lands a piece of center’s Rs. 2000+ crore tourism dream

From January 2015 till date, the government of India has release funds amounting to a colossal Rs. 2, 048 crore for tourism development projects in the northeast, among which Nagaland has a component too.

The Ministry of Tourism had, during the past 18 months, sanctioned projects worth Rs. 2333 crore under the Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD, the flagship tourism schemes of the Ministry of Tourism.

These projects envisage world class infrastructural development of the sites with special emphasis on tourist facilities including tourist “facilitation centres,” way-side amenities, parking, public convenience, illumination, sound and light shows and theme parks. 

During the meeting of the National Steering Committee (NSC, the apex committee for steering these schemes) that was conducted on Tuesday, the status report was placed by the mission directors of Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD. The meeting was presided over by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture.

In his inaugural address Dr. Sharma stressed on the need of proper coordination and convergence of schemes with the central ministries for proper development of infrastructure in the country.

The Union Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi also emphasized upon the need for proper rail, road and air connectivity with places identified under various circuits.

Rs.284.53 have been sanctioned so far under the PRASAD scheme for 11 projects in Amravati, Kamakhya Temple, Patna Sahib, Patna, Vishnupad Gaya, Shri Jaggannath Puri, Amritsar, Ajmer-Pushkar, Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan, and Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand.

They include two projects worth Rs.36.96 crore approved for the Varanasi River Cruise and Dwarka and three other projects.

Thirteen themes tourist circuits of Buddhist Circuit, Ecotourism Circuit, Wild life, Himalayan, Spiritual, North East India, Tribal, Krishna, Rural, Coastal, Heritage , Desert, Ramayana have been identified to attract both domestic and international tourists having special interest of visiting such places.

From January 2015 till date 25 projects for Rs. 2048 crore have been sanctioned. They include EcoTourism circuits in the states of Uttarkhand, Telangana, Kerala; a tribal circuit in Nagaland, Chattisgarh and Telangana; a coastal circuit in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Pondicherry, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Goa; a Buddhist circuit in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh; the Himalayan circuit in Jammu and Kashmir; the Desert circuit in Rajasthan; the wildlife circuit in Madhya Pradesh and Assam and the North East India circuit in Arunachal, Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Tripura.

Also, five pan-India mega circuits have been identified.

(Al Ngullie, July 28, 2016; Eastern Mirror)

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