New Delhi: Odisha’s Mahendragiri hills will be developed as a tourist destination under Ramayana Circuit, union tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel has said.
Answering an unstarred question of Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha Tuesday, Patel said that the project will be developed under the Swadesh Darshan scheme.
It may be mentioned here that Ramayana Circuit is one of the fifteen thematic circuits identified for development under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of Ministry of Tourism.
The Ministry has initially identified fifteen destinations for development under the Ramayana Circuit namely Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh), Sitamarhi, Buxar & Darbhanga (Bihar), Sitamarhi (Bihar), Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), Mahendragiri (Odisha), Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh), Nashik & Nagpur (Maharashtra), Bhadrachalam (Telangana), Hampi (Karnataka) and Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu).
The projects for development under the scheme are identified in consultation with the state governments and union territory administrations and are sanctioned subject to availability of funds, submission of suitable detailed project reports, adherence to scheme guidelines and utilization of funds released earlier.
This apart, the union Tourism ministry has allocated funds for Udaygiri-Khandgiri caves and Sun Temple in Konark to develop public amenities and increase their tourist potential.