BHUBANESWAR: A major contributor to the state’s revenue, the tourism sector has received an increased outlay of Rs 660 crore this time for further re-development works. The budgetary allocation for the sector was Rs 590 crore last time.
Aiming at driving tourism to unexplored destinations and building resilient infrastructure, as announced under the new Odisha Tourism Policy-2022, the government has proposed to invest Rs 400 crore for development and management of tourist infrastructure and Rs 157 crore to promote its tourism products. In the new policy which was announced in the Make-in-Odisha conclave last year, the state government offers fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to attract private sector investment.
This time, the focus is also on Baristha Nagarika Tirtha Yatra Yojana for which Rs 30 crore has been planned.Also continuing with the transformation of major religious sites into world class pilgrim centres, government has planned to spend another Rs 224 crore under the ABADHA scheme which will be used to develop the heritage city of Puri. It has also proposed Rs 150 crore under Integrated Development of Heritage and Monuments and Tourist Destinations.
Under this, the state government is currently working on Shri Jagannath temple at Puri, Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar (Ekamra project), Chandi temple at Cuttack, Nilamadhav temple at Kantilo, Sarala temple in Jagatsinghpur district, Samaleswari temple (Samalei project) at Sambalpur and Maa Taratarini in Ganjam district.