Question : Development of Tourism Hubs

(a) whether the Government has received any proposals from various State Governments for development of several tourism centres in their States;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard;
(c) the total number of tourism centres in the country at present, State-wise;
(d) the revenue earned from them and spent on them during the last three years; and
(e) whether the Government proposes to develop tourism centres under PPP mode in the country and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR TOURISM (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)
(DR. MAHESH SHARMA)

(a) to (c): The Ministry of Tourism (MOT) provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for various tourism projects subject to availability of funds, inter-se priority, liquidation of pending utilization certificates against the funds released earlier and adherence to the relevant scheme guidelines.

The Ministry of Tourism has launched following two new plan schemes pursuant to the Budget 2014-15 announcements:
1) Swadesh Darshan for Integrated Development of Tourist Circuits around Specific Themes.

Twelve theme based circuits i.e. North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit and Ramayana Circuit have been identified for development under “Swadesh Darshan”.

2) National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) to beautify and improve the amenities and infrastructure at pilgrimage centres of all faiths.

Under PRASAD, initially thirteen cities have been identified namely Ajmer, Amritsar, Amravati, Dwarka, Gaya, Kamakhaya, Kanchipuram, Kedarnath, Mathura, Patna, Puri, Varanasi and Velankanni.

The details of projects sanctioned and amount sanctioned under Swadesh Darshan and PRASAD scheme during 2014-15 and 2015-16 are given at Annexure-I.

(d) and (e): MOT does not compile any data regarding revenue generation on infrastructure projects as these are for setting up of facilities and amenities for tourists. The year-wise Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) for tourism from 2011 till August, 2015 are given at Annexure-II.

MOT has a scheme namely ‘Large Revenue Generating Projects’ (LRGP) for tourism projects under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The scheme guidelines for the newly launched plan scheme of Swadesh Darshan & PRASAD also provide for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for projects under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

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