116 new tourist destinations sanctioned across the country

The Swadesh Darshan Scheme, a flagship initiative of the Union Tourism Ministry aims to develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations by focusing on theme-based circuits and providing financial assistance to state governments
| Photo Credit: SRIDHAR KAVALI

The Centre has sanctioned a total of 116 new tourist destinations across the country under various schemes in partnership with State governments which would be developed at a cost of ₹4,088 crores.

Out of these 34 have been sanctioned under the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme, 42 have been identified under the “Challenge Based Destination Development (CBDD)”, a sub-scheme of Swadesh Darshan and 40 would be developed under Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI).

The Swadesh Darshan Scheme, a flagship initiative of the Union Tourism Ministry aims to develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations by focusing on theme-based circuits and providing financial assistance to state governments for infrastructure development. The scheme was revamped as SwadeshDarshan 2.0 (SD2.0) with the objective to develop sustainable tourism destinations.

Additionally, the Ministry has formulated CBDD as a sub-scheme under SD2.0 aiming for holistic development of destinations to enhance tourist experience.

Furthermore, the Centre through the Union Finance Ministry sanctioned 40 projects in 23 States for ₹3295.76 crore in Financial Year 2024-25 under SASCI – Development of Iconic Tourist Centres to Global Scale’ Scheme with the objective to comprehensively develop iconic tourist centres in the country, branding, and marketing them at global scale, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat informed the Parliament earlier this week.

The Centre has also approved the initiative to develop tribal homestays under the Swadesh Darshan scheme as part of the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan. The said intervention includes development of 1,000 homestays with support of up to ₹5 lakh per unit (for new construction), up to ₹3 lakhs (renovation) and ₹5 lakh for village community requirement.

The Tourism Ministry also conducts job oriented short term skill programmes through various institutes across the country, including Bihar. The main objective of this initiative is to train and upgrade manpower at every strata of tourism service providers in order to capitalise the vast tourism potential of the country to the fullest and provide professional expertise to the local populace, the Minister said.