BHUBANESWAR: In a move to attract more domestic tourists under its Swadesh Darshan scheme, the Centre has come up with a plan to develop the Koraput district into a holistic tourist destination. Odisha is a part of the 15 states shortlisted to be developed as sustainable and responsible destinations under the Ministry of Tourism’s Swadesh Darshan 2.0 programme which was launched in January last year.
This was informed by Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy while answering a question by MP Sasmit Patra on Thursday. The scheme is a part of the country’s new domestic tourism policy which moves away from theme-based tourist circuits and focuses on tourist and destination management. It will be funded by the Central government, informed the Union minister.
Under the project, the state government has to prepare a plan for the major tourist attractions of Koraput and its connectivity to the nearest tourist circuit. The scheme will help develop tourism activities, site infrastructure, and sanitation at the identified tourism sites within the district and further look into tourist services, marketing and promotion and capacity building of all stakeholders to enhance the overall tourism potential of the district. It will, however, not cover land acquisition for the development of any of the sites and resettlement of people to be displaced due to land acquisition.
Some of the tourism products of Koraput include Deomali, Gupteswar, Gulmi, Jolaput and Machkund. Although Koraput is known for its majestic hills, caves and culture, in the absence of tourism infrastructure, the tourist footfall is minimal. According to the report of the State Tourism Department, 13 tourist destinations in the district received 10.4 lakh tourists last year. The Swadesh Darshan scheme was launched by the Centre in 2014-15 for the integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits. Under the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism provided financial assistance to states and Union territories for the development of tourism infrastructure.
Prominent circuits launched under the scheme included Coastal, Buddhist, North-East, Ramayana, Wildlife and Rural circuits. In Odisha, it funded the development of the Gopalpur, Barkul, Satpada and Tampara coastal circuit at an expenditure of 63 crore. However, as the scheme could not yield the desired results, it came up with Swadesh Darshan 2.0, focussing on one destination at a time, to attract domestic tourists.