Union Budget for 2020-21 proposes tourism development

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

During the presentation of the Union Budget for 2020-21 in the Parliament, finance minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman stressed the need for states to play a positive role in tourism development and to identify schemes for development of destinations. She asked the states to prepare roadmap for certain identified tourism destinations and present the financial plans for specific grants from the Centre in 2020-21.

“Growth of tourism directly relates to growth and employment. States have a critical role to play. I expect the state governments to develop a roadmap for certain identified destinations and formulate financial plans during 2021 against which specified grants will be made available to the states in 2020-21,” Sitharaman said.

Among major development schemes forming part of tourism and culture in the Budget are establishment of Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation, converting five archaeological sites in India into iconic sites with world class infrastructure, etc.

Those identified sites are Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh) Shivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu). A maritime museum would be built at Lothal – the Harrapan age maritime site near Ahmedabad, by Ministry of Shipping. The minister also proposed more Tejas trains to connect important tourist destinations and also to boost tourism.

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