Amid ruins of basic infrastructure and losses of lives caused by natural calamity this monsoon season, the tourism development council (TDC), Uttarakhand, has received Rs 95 crore from the Government of India for developmental of tourist circuit in different parts of the State this year.
The aforesaid amount that has been released by the Central Government, has nothing to do with the present crisis that the tourism department has also been facing. The said amount of V95 crore is part of the financial assistance that the Government of India grants every year for tourist infrastructure development including development of new tourist circuits, said A K Dwivedi, Joint Director, TDC, Uttarakhand, while talking to The Pioneer.
We had demanded Rs crore for development of new tourist circuits both in the Kumaon and the Garhwal regions. But the Central Government has released only Rs 95 crore after clearing more than half a dozen tourist circuits including the Tehari mega tourist circuit, Dwivedi maintained.
However, the officials concerned of the TDC are hopeful that given the huge losses that the tourism department has suffered, hopefully the Government of India may grant more fund for tourist infrastructure development.
In the meanwhile, as the official concerned of the TDC informed, apart from release of Rs 95 crore for tourist circuit development, the Government of India has recently announced to grant Rs 100 crore to the TDC/ the State tourism department. Keeping in view the present situation in the aftermath of the natural calamity we are of the view that we may ask for more fund from the Centre for infrastructure in tourism sector , Dwivedi added.
Among the proposed circuits for the year 2013-2014 , the Tehri mega circuit is the main circuit. There are about seven or eight such tourist circuits which have been identified for development both in the Kumaon and Garhwal divisions and the fund Rs 95 crore has been released recently in this regard.
It is worth mention here that some of the popular tourist circuits which are already on the map of the tour operators include Nainital-Corbett National Park- Nainital, Dehradun- Musoorie-Dhanaulti- Rishikesh-Haridwar and Dehradun, Nanakmatta, Purnagiri- Champawat- lohaghat –Abbot Mount- Pithoragarh- Jauljibi-Madkot- Munsiyari- Bageshwar to name a few.